Last month, we previewed the opening track from True Violet, the forthcoming record by Tennessee songwriter Rayland Baxter on ATO Records. What we called “the first step in a journey through grief from one stage of life to another,” ‘Better Man’ introduced an album shaded by loss and mourning but focused on the side effects of personal growth and change. Or, as the press release nicely puts it: “the slow, steady metamorphosis of becoming someone new.”
The record’s latest single explores this journey further by centring on the geographic location in which Baxter has endured much of this transformation. Titled ‘Bolly Plateau’, it is named for the place he calls home. “I refer to the hilltop on which I live as Bolly Plateau,” he explains. “My little cabin at the near end of a dead end street. It’s quiet up here. I wave to my neighbors and keep to myself, just like everyone else. And I go through the emotions mostly alone up here.”
Unassuming this home may be, but it holds special significance. After all, this is the place which cradled Rayland Baxter as he worked through the emotional landscapes that inform the album in real time. Offering a safe and quiet haven in which he could both ruminate and write new songs. “I sure am grateful to have this place,” he continues. “I write here and I dream here and I take it all in the best way I know how. Lately the reminiscing I’ve been doing is mostly focused on the last five years of my life and my transformation.”
The single embodies these sentiments with a contemplative sound, moving with the kind of slow yet assured grace of a person who has learnt life’s lessons the hard way and emerged on the other side. There is real weariness to the track, as well as a seemingly depthless longing, but also a sense of progression towards something different. A place calmer if not altogether brighter, marked by the humble potential of a new beginning. ‘Bolly Plateau’ might carry the full weight of life, but it is also quietly triumphant in the knowledge that storms can be weathered and passed through.
True Violet will be released on 23rd October via ATO Records. Pre-order it now from the Rayland Baxter Bandcamp page.