Music Review // Chasen Wayne "En Laredo"

 

"En Laredo" is as interesting and complex of a song musically as it is lyrically.  When the music first starts, I hear a bit of the band Fastball within this sound by Chasen Wayne.  It's just telling a story while moving, as if you're on the road.  As the song goes on, there is this certain twang within here that isn't ever quite country but at times it could be rockabilly as I can hear a bit o Reverend Horton Heat perhaps.  This continues in a way which reminds me of a Robert Rodriguez film, as you could have that lone outlaw seeking revenge with a guitar.

After the verses and chorus, we get into what I believe at first to be a guitar solo and it's so well done in that old gunslinger way.  But then other elements of this music come forward, take their turn, and it just becomes this large bridge of music on display which is quite nice.  Following all of this we come back to where the title comes out in the song, as the lyrics say "En Laredo / My soul will stay".   This also feels like a bit of closure to the lyrics which are otherwise going on, and making up the rest of this song.

While there is some room for your own take on these lyrics, as they start off about crossing lines I think of a film such as "Smokey and the Bandit".  But I also think about how doing these things which put you across state lines never really has you in one place, so that's why at the end it kind of feels like the person in this story who has been all over but never really stayed in one place for too long is now finally settling down somewhere.

What I really like about this song is that it feels like it's less of a song where you would go out to the club and dance while singing along with the words and not really knowing what they mean.  This song is more like a folktale, where you're going to sit down and pay attention when you hear it.  Once you've heard it, you can get up and dance and even sing along, but to truly know it might be something you don't quite appreciate for a time to come.