Big River/ The Next One/ When That Day Comes by Red River Outlaws

There's something so intriguing about the Red River Outlaws and I can't entirely wrap my finger around what it is. Late night browsing on r/indiefolk is occasionally fruitful. However, last night, I couldn't decide if their songs were good because it was dark out or good just in general. Considering it's morning and I still can't stop listening, I'm convinced this is some solid work of folk. Dark, and occasionally sinister but keen.

Big River starts out with the narrator confessing all of his reasons for wanting to live outside of the law. At first, I'm not aware of what the motives are behind this desire or what the crime he's confessing to really will be. On one hand, the narrator is indubitably wise - if you make anything out of yourself, attention will be drawn to you and not everyone wishes for that fate. However, I find him less wise and far less charming when he further discusses, in vivid detail, his conversations with the devil. Conversations which likely motivated his crime of shooting the mayor. By the end of the song, I can't figure out if the narrator is evil or just mentally estranged, with the admission: "I've never found a single institution that could deal with my mind's confusion and I'll have to live in this delusion until the day that I die".

The Next One regales a fleeting lust story that ends with betrayal, death and supposed revenge. The narrator begins the tale prefacing the story will end with his death by the gallows. The story actually begins with a girl coming into town where she and the narrator make love, get caught and she sells him out to her father and the local sheriff, claiming she was forced into the situation. It's an unfortunate death sentence for our narrator. He continues in the song on how he'd rather leave his body behind than live without her and that he'll catch her in the next life. Except, he'll catch her in the next life... with a loaded gun. While revenge makes enough sense in this story, it's almost unexpected. By the end of the song, with the apt descriptions of how he'll never forget her betrayal and the painting of all these grim pictures, I'm floored with the story-telling and how the song makes my skin crawl.

When That Day Comes doesn't quite continue with the themes of the prior songs - the tale here is much more legend-based and folklore. The narrator is trying to escape the cruel hands of the earth, a seemingly-immortal who cannot convince a god to send him peacefully on. The gods here are interesting choices, a mountain god, an ocean god and a city god, each with their own excuses for keeping the narrator around.

Surprisingly enough, there's a lot to process with this project thus far. I am hoping whatever this ends up being stays true to the campfire tale/ folklore/ classic blues storytelling - it's a subset of folk music that is largely under appreciated, in my opinion. This aspect of folk music isn't always the easiest to pull off and the Red River Outlaws can execute it well. I'm also completely enamored with artwork that accompanies the videos and it adds a whole 'nother layer to the eerie vibe. The third video, while a different artistic direction than the first two, makes a wonderful use of videos in public domain.

What do we know about the Red River Outlaws? Not much. It's a project spearheaded by Seth Cronin with Sarah Rothert contributing vocals and gorgeous violin strings. We're supposed to see a new song posted about every week in September and a record is apparently on the way. I really need more of this in my life.

Listen to Big River, The Next One and When That Day Comes on Seth Cronin's Youtube channel.