Certain artists seem to have earned the right to tell a story and Michael Paul Lawson with his lonesome country croon that recalls that of George Strait and Randy Travis can sing a supermarket circular and it would sound victorious.
Lawson, is set to release his new LP Love Songs For Loners on October 7th. Produced by Ken Coomer (Wilco, Will Hoge), Love Songs For Loners is swaggering yet subtle, toeing the line between classic country and the darker folk sound of his 2019 release Some Fights You’ll Never Win. Lawson stares down his own base instincts the way Raymond Carver might — with sparse, economical short stories tangled up in hopelessness and the last legs of youthful optimism.
Glide is premiering the valiant new track “The One Before The One,” where Lawson sings with his dusty baritone of a story best reserved for this vignette…
It had only been a few months since she had broken things off with me when she texted me a photo of the ring. Well, that ring didn’t stop her from still coming to see me—always urgently and at random hours of the night. Her being engaged never bothered me all that much, if I’m being honest. She once asked if I thought it was terrible what she was doing. She stopped calling after that.
I never knew him—the man she was engaged to. I just knew his name was Andrew. I did occasionally see him in passing. He was clean-cut, tall, wore tailored suits—always left the top two buttons of his shirt undone. He looked like a financier, or at least someone that aspired to be one.
A year or so went by, and then she walked back into my life out of the blue—still engaged but unhappy. Andrew wasn’t paying her enough attention, was always talking to other women online. She wanted me to distract her, and, for a time, I did. Then she was gone again.
I don’t hear from her anymore. All I know is that she didn’t get married to Andrew. She just up and left him and moved to South Beach. She’s an influencer now—you can email her agent if you want her to post pictures wearing your clothes. She’s in love again, with someone new, and wants everyone to know it.
I still think about her from time to time. But mostly, I think about Andrew. I imagine him fighting like hell to try and win her back.
