Dylan LeBlanc (photo by Abraham Rowe)
Watch Louisiana singer-songwriter and onetime Southern vagabond Dylan LeBlanc’s No Depression Session at Jaan’s House in Nashville during AmericanaFest 2023, in which he shares three songs from his new concept album Coyote, out now on ATO Records (ND review).
Both the album and this ND session start with the title track, which tells the story of a character named Coyote who is fully immersed in the world of narco trafficking, embracing Santa Muerte and the reality that his story will probably not be a long one. Even though Coyote will not likely grow old, he must scrap for survival anyway. Digging further into the meaning of the song, we find out that LeBlanc shares a deep connection with the real-world animal of the same name. He grew up scrapping and scavenging similarly to the way a coyote does, so he identifies with their common hustle. Says LeBlanc, “We all grew up in chaos. It was the ’90s in Louisiana on the border of Texas … that air was thick, man. Sink-or-swim type of mentality.”
The second song in this ND session, “Stranger Things,” is placed halfway through the album, and finds our main character Coyote still alive despite the odds. The love of his life had previously kept her distance due his impossible lifestyle, but here she has chosen to make a leap of faith, letting him know that a different path is available if he wants it. The third song in this ND session, “Dark Waters,” sees Coyote earlier in his struggle, before any light at the end of the tunnel has revealed itself.
I heard each of these songs in concert the night before, when LeBlanc played the inaugural Jaanaroo just a few steps from where we recorded this ND session. At the time, I missed the fact that these songs were from the new record. I thought I knew them from previous LeBlanc records, or that I might’ve vaguely recognized them as haunting reinterpretations of songs by artists like Blaze Foley or Townes Van Zandt. I’ve played this ND session many more times than I’ve had to for work, and every time I am blown away by how much each song seems like I’ve known it forever.
This No Depression Session at AmericanaFest 2023 was made possible by AEA Ribbon Mics.
Find previous No Depression Sessions at AmericanaFest here, and look for more in the coming weeks.
