Looking For a Soundtrack to Start a Revolution? Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires “Dereconstructed” Is It

Looking for a soundtrack to start a revolution?

You may want to take a mighty hard listen to the new Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires album “Dereconstructed”. From the growl of Lee’s SG and soulful voice increasingly calling out “tell me why” on the debut single “Company Man” over a huge and glorious rock n’ roll sound that reminds me of a The Who album. This is an album that calls out what is wrong with our system.

Hear the poets and professors

Postulate how we all got so robbed.

All it takes is one wicked heart, a pile of money,

And a chain of folks just doing their jobs.

This is an album to light a fire and it has the fuel to let it burn. With that fire comes empowerment. The power to rethink and relearn what was ingrained into us and to pass those new lessons learned on. That’s a beautiful thing y’all. That’s what I pull from “Dereconstructed” at least.

We were whooped with the Good Book,

Wound up shamed, sorry and worse.

But I yearned to burn the wrath out of every chapter,

And water the love in every verse.

Water the love in every verse.

The same could be said about the self inventory “The Kudzu & The Concrete” poses to Southern communities.

You can talk, talk, talk about it:

Repentance, and forgiveness,

And loving your neighbor as yourself.

But what the hell does that mean

When all your neighbors look the same,

And think the same,

Or else live a couple miles

Down the rural route?

I’m an obvious, and self admitted lyric quoter. Can an album sound great and have hollow words? I suppose so, it’s obvious on a lot of radio and music awards ceremonies. It doesn’t hold weight around this camp. I want those lines that stir things. That make you take a deeper look.

So, gather around all ye wicked ones who wouldn’t touch the stuff you’re selling.

Come all y’all shallow-chested cowards who wheeze with pleas for proof.

Granddaddy taught unto me the difference between telling a story and storytelling:

One is bearing false witness; the other is baring more truth than the truth.

Music is powerful. Especially when laced lyrically with substance and truths. Things like that are what makes songs like “What’s Good And Gone” drive that point home. I don’t have a song on this album I can say I dislike. “Mississippi Bottomland” is another favorite track of mine on this album.

This is a solid album. How solid? So solid in fact that if the Northeast has Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires may damn well be the South’s answer. Let that hang in the air for a second y’all.

Dig, score the album here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dereconstructed/id820652788

Go show LB3 & The Glory Fires some well deserved love over on Twitter & Facespace.

P.S.

Lee, you guys come back to Texas. I promise you ain’t too loud for us.

Still doubting? Watch this video of Lee on his porch playing “The Company Man” solo. You’re welcome….

Lee Bains III – The Company Man from THE BITTER SOUTHERNER on Vimeo.

Review by Chris Richburg for Empty Bottles And Broken Souls