It’s about time The Red Clay Strays had their Tiny Desk Concert debut.
In fact, it’s about time that the Brandon Coleman led band gets a lot of things. The sky is the limit for the Southern rock and country group from Mobile, Alabama. Right now, the band is still in the midst of their breakout – which has been taking place since 2022. Pretty soon though, they’ll be catapulted into full blown stardom (jump on the train while you still can).
A good sign that an artist or band is on the right path is when they get asked to perform a Tiny Desk Concert. It might seem a little gimmicky, but artists and bands see it as an honor to play the Tiny Desk venue. The likes of Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Post Malone, Lainey Wilson and many others have taken their talents to the Tiny Desk to play intimate sets that are later posted by NPR.
So when The Red Clay Strays got the call to join, they kindly accepted. They viewed it as a great way to show off their fairly new album Made By These Moments, which the band released back in July of 2024. If you’ve never cued up it… might I ask you what you’ve been doing with your life the past six months? The record is chock full of hits, and Coleman and The Red Clay Strays brought more than a couple of songs from the album to their Tiny Desk debut.
The setlist for this rendition of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert included “Ramblin’,” “Wanna Be Loved,” “I’m Still Fine,” “God Does,” and then stuck the landing with the emotional title track “Moments.” It was a great collection of songs that showed off their range and unique ability to blend the fine lines between country, rock, Americana, folk and whatever other genre they want to test out (I’m partial to “Wanna Be Loved” for those keeping score at home).
The group has shown so much versatility and range in their first two studio albums: Moment of Truth and Made By These Moments. While some are hesitant to call The Red Clay Strays country, I personally think that the band is tied to the music genre because of the classic-country-esque songwriting and storytelling that their songs present.
There’s no doubt that their sound ranges from southern rock to blues and everything in between, but it’s the detailed and intentional storytelling of their songwriting that seems to have unintentionally placed them into country music. Regardless of what you want to classify them as, Coleman and The Red Clay Strays are enjoying the ride their currently on.
And as Coleman described just before the last song of their Tiny Desk Concert, they put together Made By These Moments to help people realize and process all of those moments in life that add up to make the big picture:
“When we went into the studio to record this album, we only had like six songs prepared. Five or six songs. We didn’t really know what was going to become of the album. The more we recorded and everything, we kind of picked up on the message that was happening… just going through everything that happens to us as people.
Coming out of it and finding hope in coming out of it and realizing it made you stronger. That’s why we named the album after the song ‘Moments.’ It’s about realizing every terrible thing that you’ve gone through, that’s what makes you the person you are today.”
You can view The Red Clay Strays’ Tiny Desk Concert in the video below:
