SONG PREMIERE: Madisons Sing Rowdy Alt-Country Ode to the Red-Headed Stranger with “The Willie Song”

Madisons are an 8-piece garage-folk band based out of Austin. Founded by lead singer and main songwriter Dominic Solis in 2011, the band is known for their deeply personal lyrics, vivid and honest storytelling containing equal parts profound misery and inescapable joy, and their jubilantly raucous live shows. This, combined with touring all over the U.S. has earned the band a small but dedicated national following. Many local fans affectionately refer to them as “Austin’s best kept secret”. Madisons have released four full length albums to date and will be releasing an EP, Country Music Sunday!!!, in January 4, 2019.

With their new EP, however, they take a step sideways to a genre of music they’ve long adored but never really attacked head on. COUNTRY MUSIC SUNDAY!!! offers a hint of what the Madisons can achieve when they try to play it straight, yet it’s filtered through their own offbeat way of making music. Its five songs are traditional, ramshackle, filled with youthful energy, and a downright joy to hear.

COUNTRY MUSIC SUNDAY!!! gets its name from a semi-annual event band leader Dominic Solis and his wife, Denise, hold in their backyard. It started out approximately seven years ago as a way to fight a New Year’s Eve hangover. Initially just a song swap among friends, it’s grown into an early Sunday party, usually in the fall then in the spring around South By Southwest, attended by upwards of 100 people with a beer sponsor, breakfast tacos for everyone, and all sorts of what the Madisons consider country music filling the air.

A follow-up 2017’s well received No Man’s Land and their fifth long player over all, COUNTRY MUSIC SUNDAY!!! remains a testament to the band’s thinking when they first formed. They’re a bunch of friends – some acting as a songwriter and not performers – others standing by for support, all obviously in love with what they do.

Today Glide is excited to premiere one of the EP’s standout songs, “The Willie Song”. This tune in particular stands out because it was contributed by Jaz Lee Short, a Fort Worth based singer-songwriter who the band adores. The song melds the energy of a rootin’ tootin’ jamboree with that of a raucous punk rock show complete with plenty of pedal steel twang, loose banjo picking, and a fun fiddle jam. The band sings along to the lead vocals in their loose hootenanny style as the lyrics tell a tale of moving to Austin and worshipping at the altar of the Red-Headed Stranger himself, Willie Nelson. With enough pot smoking to make Willie smile and plenty of late-night shenanigans chronicled – not to mention a kick ass little guitar solo – the song takes on an alt-country meets cowpunk sound with a healthy dose of Texas swagger. It also romanticizes hippie redneck vibe that put Austin, Texas on the map and is increasingly tough to find as the city sells its soul one condo at a time. 

In their own words, the band describes the inspiration behind the song:

“Austin, TX is without a doubt the house the Willie Nelson built, but Willie wasn’t born here. Austin has been going through a lot of changes over the years. It might not have the small town charm it once did, but really good people still live here, AND some really great people still move here. They help keep that old spirit alive, and we fancy ourselves part of that tribe.”

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