ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘Made by These Moments,’ The Red Clay Strays Find a Home in Introspective Songs
Alli Patton
Posted On July 26, 2024
“I’ve been holding onto something / This all can’t be for nothing / We’re all made by these moments,” frontman Brandon Coleman belts with a Graceland gusto on “Moments,” the song that inspired the title to The Red Clay Strays’ sophomore effort.
Over the last few years, it really has been about moments for the Mobile, Alabama-formed five-piece: the seemingly insignificant ones, the ones wasted, the ones spent striving toward the next, and, borrowing from the name of their 2022 debut record, moment(s) of truth. Now, on Made by These Moments, the widely lauded outfit are taking stock once more of what has gotten them to where they are today.
The Red Clay Strays (photo by Robby Klein)
Where they are today, of course, is somewhere near the stratosphere. They’re nominated as Emerging Act of the Year in the 2024 Americana Music Association’s Honors & Awards, they’ve sold out three headlining gigs at the Ryman in September, and they recently played The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon — all mostly on the strength of viral hit “Wondering Why,” from Moment of Truth, which has notched 100 million streams on Spotify and counting.
Opening with the dull sting of rhythm and steel of “Disaster,” Made by These Moments is immediately compelling, all at once fiery and forgiving, hellbent and heavenly, as the band muses on life’s complexities. Throughout the record, the Strays turn over themes of faith and salvation, love and longing, loneliness and desperation, closely examining what it means to be human.
In this way, the band deftly traverses a treacherous expanse of emotions across the album’s 11 tracks. Where they wax despondent on numbers like the wailing “Wanna Be Loved” and the devouring “Drowning,” they meet such despair with an equally burning resilience on offerings like the ferocious “Wasting Time” and the resolute “I’m Still Fine.” When they can’t reconcile with either, they call on a higher power, asking for guidance on “God Does” and seeking direction forward on “No One Else Like Me.”
No matter the emotion, each track unfolds against an effortlessly tailored Southern-ness. The album is all wet heat and stubborn earth, the band’s sound an extension of the land from which they sprung, their words a record of the place they carry with them still.
You can hear their home in the rollicking and rambunctious swampy rocker “Ramblin’,” and you can feel it in the holy-rolling hymn “On My Knees,” which evokes visions of packed pews with each “Praise the Lord,” and in the flame-licking blues of the deep and muddied “Devil in My Ear.”
A striking collection, flush with a heart-on-the-sleeve intimacy and an unshakable integrity, Made by These Moments is relatively absent of passive listens. Its contents are concerned with proving it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the skyrocketing act, and they’re better for it.
Because of this, the record may lack the virality of early successes like “Wondering Why,” but Made by These Moments is full of songs built to last. In the end, the album finds The Red Clay Strays weaving those mere moments into eternity as they continue to solidify their stardom.
The Red Clay Strays’ Made by These Moments is out July 26 on RCA Records.
