“Shuckin’ in a Cornfield” by Roots Asylum

With a playful volley of strings and a growing harmony that only gets sweeter as we go deeper into the song, “Shuckin’ in a Cornfield” sees Roots Asylum not wasting any time in getting right into the guts of their melodic Americana attack, and though this new single is a good example of what listeners can expect to hear out of most their material, it’s as unique an offering as any you’ll find from within their presently-released content without a doubt.

URL: https://rootsasylum.com/home

“Shuckin’ in a Cornfield” is a track that doesn’t ask a lot out of its audience in exchange for a wealth of pleasantries produced for us through little more than the chemistry created between the individual players in the group, and even though it relies more on the tried and true model for folky Americana hybrids than it does anything on the left side of the country dial, it’s got a particular lustiness to its melodic lashings that make it a nice listen no matter what the mood in the room might be.

You don’t have to be a professional music critic to appreciate the amount of love that’s present in every verse in this song, but for those of us who are bigger audiophiles than most, this is an especially passionate performance from a band that is devoted to their craft more than the average group is. There’s something almost spiritual about the way that the words have been married with the string melodies in the foreground as if to create some kind of a seamless bond between the different components in the song without ever abandoning the distinguishing lines that make each element a charming gem for us to analyze.

From afar, there’s nothing overindulgent nor grand about the way this track was structured, but at the same time, the detailed master mix and overall airtightness to the production make it impossible for us to willfully overlook any of the subtler points in the single. I don’t often hear this kind of work put into a song in this genre, but then again, I don’t often get to hear a band like Roots Asylum, in Americana or anywhere else.

APPLE MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/us/album/shuckin-in-a-cornfield/1638530632?i=1638530633

Brilliantly sculpted as both an homage and an original ballad with enormous potential for the stage, you just can’t go wrong with Roots Asylum’s latest single if you’re as intrigued by the notion of a modern Americana revival as I am. This has been a big year for all things roots n’ grass but something tells me that, when all is said and done, this group is going to end up being noted as one of the better acts to come out of the underground as the 2020s has finally started to come to life following major impotence with the pandemic just a couple of years ago. “Shuckin’ in a Cornfield” is a fascinating peek into what they could do with their sound given the right circumstances, and I for one can’t wait to hear more tracks like it.

Michael Rand