GTC SUNDAY CLASSIC: 3 Reasons Why THE BLACK LILLIES
The Black Lillies are available at Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify.
by Walter Price
The Black Lillies’ most recent release titled Hard To Please [2015] is akin to a classic 1970’s era country radio playlist. Not that this is an album of covers but it is an album that travels in shadows of sounds past. As the tracks play out memories of Ronnie Milsap, Tanya Tucker, John Conlee, Conway Twitt, and Lynn Anderson fill the room. It’s clear that songwriter Cruz Contreras has a deep appreciation for the names that preceded him. Blending these classic country sounds with pinches of blues, pop, and rock…you’ll find that the recipe works.
And the devotion to keeping the band’s sound grounded in reality, if not historically accurate, the songwriter is a damn fine storyteller. Each track carries that magic that allows the listener to direct short little mental films in wildly fantastic interpretations. In a time when music is carbon copies of itself, the craftsmanship here is brilliantly refreshing.
“Gearing up to write this record, one reoccurring theme kept smacking me in the face. It came from every direction and in many ways, but always the same: write from your heart. Create from a personal space. Heart. Heart. Heart. It was the only way to do it.” – Cruz Contreras
If you long for those take it easy days when AM radio played from the ol family four-door sedan, then The Black Lillies’ Hard To Please is one for you. Let’s go just 3 of the reasons why this stunning release…
[Original Pub-Date: 11. May 2017]
HARD TO PLEASE
Well it’s a big old world with lots of folks in it
Some take-take, some gonna give it
At the end of the day it’s all about the same
Ain’t nobody else that you can blame
For your own damn troubles and the way ya go
Buck up now you got a long ways home
It’s like I said when you end up dead
There’s no farther to go
Music by Cruz Contreras and Bowman Townsend
Lyrics by Cruz Contreras
MERCY
Oh darling, yes darling
I can hear you calling out my name
And it sounds so good, every time we meet
Like a rollin’ melody you’ve got a hold on me
Still it ain’t easy, no it ain’t easy
For a grown woman to confide
That I need your love
Mmm … flesh and blood
That’s why I’m calling, calling on you
Music and lyrics by Cruz Contreras
40 DAYS
Band photo via Bandcamp
Cruz Contreras
Bowman Townsend
Dustin Schaefer
Sam Quinn
Forty days and forty nights
Flying down the highway white line sideways leavin it all behind
We gonna rock n roll till the break a dawn
Set em up knock em down sing our song
Forty days and forty nights
Lookin for a win, tryin to find a way
Scarlett called up said that she can pay
High on a mountain up in the sky
From here on out…I think we’re gonna fly
“Since debuting in 2009, The Black Lillies have firmly established their reputation for fusing classic country-rooted sounds with contemporary energy and attitude.” – bio