The Red Clay Strays: Tiny Desk Concert

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Ann Powers | January 17, 2025 The Red Clay Strays is a big band with a future that keeps expanding. In the past few years the Mobile, Ala.-born five-piece has rocketed from club gigs to major stages like Colorado's Red Rocks and Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on the strength of its joyful interplay and soaring Southern rock sound. It wasn't a given that the Strays could rein in the grandeur that its fanbase relishes to fit the modest Tiny Desk. But this easy rolling set shows what's made these longtime road dogs one of the fastest-rising ensembles in any genre right now: the ability to blend intimate and epic moments in a seamless and perfectly modulated performance. Singer Brandon Coleman possesses serious magnetism and a unique, keening voice — looking eerily like Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, he shared stories of self-doubt and solace in a higher power while introducing favorites like "I'm Still Fine." But the Strays are a band, not just a set piece for a handsome frontman, and the interplay on chooglers like "Ramblin'" or ballads like "Wanna Be Loved" will have viewers returning to this set. It's just so fun to watch keyboardist Sevans Henderson trade riffs with bottleneck guitarist Zach Rishel, or track how drummer John Hall adjusts his mighty power to the Desk's confines. And the Strays keep things inventive, always. "Changed that one up completely — it was scary," guitarist and songwriter Drew Nix laughed after the band's swing

Published 2025-01-17 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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