truck songs of the week #35: the borderline between "west" & "country"

new music featuring a couple rattlesnakes, the Rio Grande & heartbreak Levis

This week is caught somewhere between Arizona and Tennessee. It’s live oak trees and saguaro cacti. Rattlesnakes and copperheads.

Drive safe.

Get the full 2024 playlist here.

---

“Country Enough” by Austin Burke

Austin Burke is a country artist from the wrong part of the country. On this track, Burke captures the nonsensical truth that “country” actually means “Southern country.” The Arizona native is Western instead, which somehow places him farther away from the modern cowboy mythos. “Never been stuck in the mud / Cause it don't rain in Arizona,” he explains, for the meteorologically challenged. “Never shot a buck / But I've killed a couple rattlesnakes.”

When I moved to Texas from Seattle, I was struck by the way it felt like driving West—even when I was technically eastbound. Somehow the “regions” of the U.S. are always threatening to transcend their geographic limits. We’ve got all these beautifully named places that aren’t on the map: the West, the Heartland, God’s Country. Maybe what’s most incredible is that we do find some collective agreement about their meaning, despite their abstraction.

Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube

“Think Of You” by Dipper

Slick country pop that would make Keith Urban proud.

Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube

“Borderline Crazy” by William Bekmann

I imagine this is what you might get if Waylon Jennings covered a Tim McGraw song. The 70s cowboy vox affectation mixed with a sweeping chord progression that sounds like it came straight out of the 90s.

Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube

---

• Can a country star claim both Nashville and Texas? Miranda Lambert thinks so.

• Keith Urban played a free show at an Alabama Buc-ee’s and now I’m surprised this is a collaboration we haven’t seen more of.

---

---

Thank you so much for being here! If you love this newsletter, the best way to support it is by sharing it with a friend.