Sol Chase and Jared Huskey have always found Texas’s “thing” for armadillos to be a little paradoxical.
“They’re kind of glorified here,” Huskey explains. “Supposedly, their shells represent our state’s strength. But nine times out of ten, you see them dead on the side of the road.”
Chase, a Bluegrass aficionado, and Huskey, a self-described rambler with hip-hop roots, join forces to address this enigma on a macro-level. The dynamic pair make their debut as The Armadillo Paradox with their brilliant LP out March 26th – Out of Gas in Oil Country.
The Armadillo Paradox gallivants between Country, Americana, folk, bluegrass and alt-rock with soft lyrical styling and experimental acoustic instrumentation. Eddie Dickerson and Kimberly Zielnicki’s sweeping fiddle solos, along with a full horn section and marching-style drums, pioneer a sonic pathway through a peculiar moment in history. They hang their proverbial cowboy-style hats on the fact that they are among the only bands to ever pair a mandolin with a synthesizer. Kym Warner, Robert Earl Keen’s Grammy-nominated mandolinist, lends his skills on a custom electric, redefining roots music on the record.
Like many indie projects, the album’s inception involved fate. After sneaking into an industry party, Huskey connected with Charles Godfrey. Something about their chat struck a chord with the acclaimed sound engineer (Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, Beach House, Portugal. The Man, The Mountain Goats). Within weeks, The Armadillo Paradox joined Godfrey at Scary American Studio in East Austin. Mixed by Godfrey and mastered by Dan Shike (Lumineers, Cody Jinks, Third Eye Blind), Out of Gas in Oil Country is a satirical vignette of a culture blinded by its own purview.
For Chase, most of his songs’ stories exist outside of his lived experience. He’s a fiction writer with a journalism background. He says his story-driven style has become a therapeutic process.
“I put my characters into hardship, imagining someone in a tough spot,” says Chase. “Then I will either write them out of it or deeper into that hole. It’s a way to work out emotional distress in my own life. I write about something that is so much worse than anything I’m going through to put things in perspective.”
Glide is thrilled to premiere “Your Eyes Are Like Star,” off of Out of Gas in Oil Country (below). The duo combines the effortless lyrical charm of John Prine alongside the indie rock unpredictability of The Mountain Goats. There isn’t any sugar-coating forthright lyrics like: “Your eyes are like stars/They’re best when they’re far, far away/Gettin’ duller by the hour/And I don’t have to see ‘em all day/They were dead all along/But they pull a good hoax.” The Armadillo Paradox is the young tried and true string band we’ve been waiting for…
Socials:
https://solchaseatx.com/armadilloparadox
