You’d be pretty hard pressed to find a country singer with a catalog as impressive as Jason Boland.
The Oklahoma native who calls Texas home, has been a mainstay in the Red Dirt music scene for over 20 years, with his group, Jason Boland & the Stragglers.
The man is still as good as ever, as he dropped his impressive concept album titled The Light Saw Me last December, one of our favorites of 2021.
It’s got a really cool and unique storyline about a Texas cowboy who gets abducted by aliens in the late 1800s, and dropped off 100 years in the future. I could go on and on about that one, but I’m here to talk about his iconic 1999 debut album, Pearl Snaps… one of my most favorite albums of all time.
This album has it all…
Raw emotion, humor, sadness, hope, happiness, struggles of life, I mean everything.
The album contains two of arguably his most popular songs, “Somewhere Down in Texas,” and the title-track “Pearl Snaps.”
Let’s talk about my personal top five must hear songs from the album:
“Somewhere Down in Texas”
For anybody relatively familiar with Jason Boland & the Stragglers, this song is probably the most recognizable.
It’s a gorgeous, fiddle-driven song about no matter how big the storms of life can get, the sun is always shining somewhere in Texas, and there’s always a place to keep him warm there.
“Proud Souls”
This is probably my favorite song off the whole album.
It’s a simple song about living a lonely single life, as Boland sings about pounding a bottle of liquor as he watches a show about “crime and drugs” on TV.
He also has one of the deepest lines on the whole album in the song:
“If everyone was together
I guess no one would be alone
Life’s a lot of trade offs in the end…”
“Pearl Snaps”
This is an absolute toe tappin’ honky-tonker and an all-time classic.
It’s a humorous song about how everything in the world continues to change, like you can’t cuss or spit on the floor anymore, or hit on a woman without getting sued, but you always have a cheap bottle of bourbon and a pearl snap shirt to go back to.
“Telephone Romeo”
Although the album was dropped in 1999, this one feels like a good ol’ early ’90s country jam.
It’s a telephone conversation between a couple who is trying to make a long distance relationship work, and Boland sings about all that’s been on his mind.
Not to mention, its got some killer steel.
“If I Ever Get Back to Oklahoma”
This is another boot stomper.
Boland sings about how if he ever gets back to his home state of Oklahoma at some point, they better nail his feet into the ground before he tries to leave again.
