Mainstream country is…something. Thankfully, there are artists making music outside those confines – artists who understand that country was born from resistance to power, not allegiance to it; from bootlegging, not bootlicking. North Carolina-bred, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Nathan Evans Fox is one of them.
Fox, whose powerful new LP Heirloom drops on today, May 29 via Free Dirt Records, was raised on four generations of family land in Western North Carolina. His was a community shaped by mill closures and factory layoffs, and a local economy hollowed out by the 2008 recession. A lifelong musician, Fox took a winding path to his eventual career after graduating from college, working a series of thankless, blue-collar jobs before attending seminary to become a chaplain. While no longer a religious person, he’s still a seeker of truth, laying his journey bare within the 12 poignant tracks of Heirloom.
Becoming a father was a pivotal moment for Fox, causing him to wrestle with greater questions of inheritance and family systems. What kind of world would he leave to his children? And would he be the kind of parent his children would miss one day? This sentiment is reflected beautifully in album opener “Lots of Beginnings,” a letter to his first born delivered in his signature baritone twang. In buzzy, banjo-laced banger “Little Bit Of Shine,” he reflects on paying his dues and gaining career clarity while on diss tracks like “Landlords, Bill Lee, etc.” he pokes fun at the shameful political actors who wake up every day with plans to make their citizens’ lives harder, including naming the swaggering song after Tennessee’s shady governor and sampling his voice. Its chorus is one of the record’s sharpest moments, delivering lines like, “A little bit of hillbilly karma, down home dharma / Gives you a good talking to… bless your heart / I hope this life of meanness don’t come easy” with equal parts humor and righteous bite.
Ever the clever, Fox turns a widely-used, Southern pesticide into a metaphor for familial love in “Sevindust.” Families offer members protection within their political leanings, myths, and religious traditions, but sometimes those systems destroy everything around them. The metaphorical prowess continues on album standout “Racecar.” In it, Fox draws on NASCAR – a civic religion in his native North Carolina and a sport rooted in the rural Southern tradition of running moonshine to survive. Instead, he uses it as a metaphor for the ills of a capitalistic system that requires participants to run in circles while never getting anywhere. With its fuzzy guitar and catchy-as-hell chorus, this song will work its way into your bones (regardless of it featuring another sample of ol’ Bill Lee’s voice).
“Hillbilly Hymn (Okra & Cigarettes),” a song which had a viral moment on social media last summer, is like a modern “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” a stomp and holler-style singalong with old-time gospel roots. The album finishes with “I Know The End,” a hazy, heartfelt meditation Fox wrote after the death of his father; it ends with the refrain of “Lots Of Beginnings,” creating a loop back to the top of this beautiful record.
Heirloom is about examining society’s cycles and systems – from its families to its broader population – and leaving behind what no longer serves us. It’s about confronting the ugly truths of the place that raised you while recognizing there’s still beauty somewhere underneath its bloody soil. If you’re from the South, you’ll hear your people in Fox’s voice. Even if you aren’t, Heirloom will still find its way to your heart. It’s one of the year’s best records.
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