Music Review // The Bobby Tenderloin Universe "Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch"

 

The Bobby Tenderloin Universe has created not only a great country song with the "Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch" but this is also a compelling story.   Throughout this song you will hear that steady pace that also has a twang which I think makes it just this pure country.  It's not over the top, it's closer to the outlaw type of country sound like Merle Haggard or Willie Nelson.  With the deep bass vocals this can also cross genres and be compared with Johnny Cash.

To tell the story of this song would be to quote all of the lyrics or just simply point to the title as it is a tale of redemption.  Some of the lines I particularly like say: "You're on your own again / Sitting on your phone / Thinking about the things you thought you'd never do".   Sometimes we do those things we didn't think we would do as part of our redemption arc, you know, part of the story which brings us back home when we don't think we can go home.

During this music video the story is being acted out and you can see the main character do some fairly ordinary things right up until the end.   As this video and song come to a close, the main character is shown in open water wearing all white.  Someone comes up off to the side, you can see a gun and then the main character is shot.  The way that this leaves the video and song are kind of like a "choose your own ending" because it could mean different things to different people at different times.

When you think of redemption, in some ways, you tihnk of killing your past.  You have to take that which needs redeeming and get rid of it.  In this way, seeing the character die at the end of this video could be a sign of that thing which is holding you back as dying.  At the same time, it could be a sign that maybe whatever was eating at that person didn't get resolved and instead ending up killing a part of them they can'tt get back now.  So it's a tricky situation and depends upon how you handle your own problems but you need to handle them.