Having burst onto Nashville’s bustling Americana scene with his debut EP in 2018, E.G. Vines is preparing for the release of his first full-length album as a solo artist. Produced by Jordan Lehning (Kacey Musgraves, Robert Ellis, Rayland Baxter), Family Business due out October 11, 2019 is a deep dive into Vines’ broad-ranging roots rock sound paired with lyrics that relate themselves to the human condition. As its title suggests, at its core lies a focus on what makes us, as a collective society, family. With lead single “The Salesman” already in rotation at regional taste-maker Lightning 100, Vines is poised to break out on a national scale.
The skyrocketing riffs of “The Victim” kicks the album off in style, complete with high-rising instrumental breaks and Vines’ own soaring across the track vocally. It gives listeners something expressive and personal to start out on while touching on today’s social climate. Vines recalls, “I started writing ‘The Victim’ when I was at the beach with my family thinking back on the progression of my life. It talks about victim mentality—if you feel like a victim, you’re going to be a victim. There is a way to break out of that and hopefully we learn to see it.”
Glide is thrilled to premiere “The Victim” (below) an inspirational anthem that mixes passionate guitar rock and a punctuating chorus. Vines mixes shades of early Tom Petty, U2 and modern touches of War on Drugs to create a knockout social commentary.
“The Victim’ is the first track off of Family Business giving it the daunting task of previewing the rest of the record. I did my best to take what the universe gave me and write songs without thinking about their final packaging, so there is a variety of lyrical content and stylistic influences you’ll experience throughout the record. That diversity is what I think I’m most proud of with this album. Lyrically, ‘The Victim’ is simply about victim mentality. It’s easy to slip into that mindset and you have to realize that you are in control of your own outcomes in order to get through it.
Growing up in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Vines first cut his teeth as the frontman to an alternative rock band in high school. Since then, he’s become a respected name amongst the greats of Nashville’s expansive roots rock cabal. First moving to Music City in 2009, Vines quickly became a hot commodity for his work with The Bandoliers, a respected facet of the blues and Southern rock scene in the mid-2010s. The band released their last album in 2015, at which point Vines acted on the urge to go solo.
Dropping his debut EP, Conversation—produced by Eddie Spear (Brandi Carlile, The Delta Saints)—in 2018, the rocker gave listeners their first taste of a more thoughtful, nuanced side to his songwriting. It was a much longer process than he was used to, with Spear acting as a songwriting mentor more so than a traditional producer, scrapping Vines’ initial batch of tunes and pushing him to hone his craft before releasing new material. The finished product was worth the wait, and showcased Vines’ newfound, stirringly eclectic Americana sound.
All in all, Family Business is an album about family, but not solely the nuclear sense. Vines has a knack for injecting his thoughts on hot button issues and well-crafted life anecdotes into his music as any bonafide roots rocker should, but his vision is wider in scope. In communicating his ideas on love, loss, and life, he instantly creates a connection with listeners that feels universally relatable and utterly personal. To this end, he aims to make us—one and all, as humankind—feel like family.
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