Album Review – Bryan James “Politics or Religion”
The Outlaw side of country is experiencing a big resurgence, and no, we’re certainly not talking about inside of the mainstream. If anything it’s in spite of what’s happening on the radio dial that this groundswell is occurring. It’s inspiring hardcore country artists to rise up and offer a counterbalance to the pop being offered as country. Guys like Whitey Morgan and the 78’s have been doing this for years of course, but now with the popularity of Cody Jinks and others, we’re seeing a whole new scene of these artist—guys like T. J. Hernandez, Dallas Moore, Mickey Lamantia, with many fans ready and willing to support them.
One such name is Bryan James. Originally from Killeen, TX and now living in Florida, James pledges his allegiance to tried and true country music with his third record since 2016 called Politics or Religion. You probably will draw strong conclusions about what this record sounds like simply from the title and cover, and once you give it a listen, you’ll conclude you’re right, but only partially. The title isn’t an ultimatum by the way, it’s about swearing off these contentious subjects in conversation.
The Southern accent is thick, many of the songs are gruff, attitudinal, and unapologetic, and the music is stone cold country. But if all the bluster from these modern day country music Outlaws really isn’t your thing, and an album cover with a screaming eagle bathed in the stars and stripes reminds you of a decal the annoying coal rollers in your town would have on their back window, you might be surprised at just how much quality songwriting is showcased on this record.
With all 14 songs being solo written by Bryan James aside for one, Politics or Religion has plenty of red meat slabs that the Outlaw country constituency craves, songs like “Slowing Down in Style” about not giving up or backing down, or “Drinking to The Point They Throw Me Out,” or “The Art of Not Giving A Damn.” There’s being out of style and perfectly unaware, and then there’s being out of style and not giving a damn, if not taking pride in it. The latter is what Bryan James espouses.
But the prevailing mood of Politics or Religion is one that runs against the grain of Outlaw bluster, showing surprising humility, gentleness, and vulnerability. And no matter what Bryan James is singing about, it’s always written very well, cover to cover. When he comes with “I Get It Now” about understanding the lessons we’re all taught while we’re younger, but may not understand until we’re older, Bryan surprises you with the depth, and his ability to sing a soft and slow song. He proves this again in the unburdening “Dear Heaven,” being willing to admit both his pain, and his doubt.
Again and again on Politics and Religion, Bryan James proves he can deliver the songs for both Saturday Night—like the ending song “It Won’t Be Today” about being slow to change habits—and Sunday morning, like the reflective “On Borrowed Time,” or the sweet sentiments of fatherhood found in “The Promise.” You could take this record and split it down the middle, and almost tell the tale of two completely separate artists, one that you see as the modern incarnation of a hellraising Johnny Paycheck character, and another whose songwriting could be set right beside some of today’s most sentimental writers like Lori McKenna. Yet despite the devil/angel aspect, it all blends very well on the record, because it all feels very personal to Bryan James.
Politics or Religion will present challenges for some, including a few incurred even before you hear a peep of the music. If the cover and the title don’t turn you off, the voice of Bryan James may. There’s no reason to believe he is faking his strong Southern accent. The outskirts of Killeen, TX are pretty darn country. But when many of the tones coming from him feel like a variation on an ‘R’ sound no matter the consonant or vowel, it will be a turn off for some, even if it’s the exact reason others may want to listen. When you hear Bryan James sing at the beginning of “Dear Heaven” where he dials back the accent for a bit, it just feels more real. Even though the album is well-produced, there’s also a strange doubling up on the vocal signal in some of the choruses that makes his voice sound processed.
And despite the album’s title coming from Bryan’s sworn promise to not broach polarizing subjects because of how argumentative they can become, the song “No Nice Way to Say It” lashes out at those who complain about victimhood, making it fair to characterize as veering into the political realm.
Nonetheless, from what you may assume of Politics or Religion because of the cover and the title, to what you actually get is two different things, while the established fans of Bryan James get exactly what they’re looking for.
1 1/2 Guns Up (7.5/10)
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June 24, 2020 @ 8:38 am
”Politics or Religion has plenty of red meat slabs that the Outlaw country constituency craves, songs like “Slowing Down in Style” about not giving up or backing down, or “Drinking to The Point They Throw Me Out,” or “The Art of Not Giving A Damn.” There’s being out of style and perfectly unaware, and then there’s being out of style and not giving a damn, if not taking pride in it. The latter is what Bryan James espouses.”
dead on , trigger .
damn this stuff sounds great …..the conviction here is only surpassed by the ‘ don’t give a damn’ referenced in trigger’s excellent review . nice punchy and clean production …terrific vocal . ‘ On Borrowed Time ” is a gem , IMO.
June 24, 2020 @ 8:47 am
I dig what I’ve heard here.
June 24, 2020 @ 9:22 am
I like Bryan James and bought this album, but as with his other albums, the vocals aren’t always the best. I’d rate him as behind others in this style of music behind Gethen Jenkins, Mickey Lamentia, and Creed Fisher, among others. This is his best album yet though. He’s improving.
Thanks for the review.
June 24, 2020 @ 9:37 am
Gethen Jenkins is a guy that when he first came out, was singing with a super strong Southern accent where everything was R’d off, which is what a lot of these guys try to do. With his last record, he just sang more naturally, and it was so much better. You’re still going to hear an accent. It’s still going to sound country. I never want to criticize someone if they just happen to have a heavy accent, but there’s just no reason to embellish it. If anything, drying it out will raise the appeal for the music and make the singing feel more natural. I think Bryan James is a great singer, and he proves it on this record. I just think he might benefit from not trying to force anything.
June 24, 2020 @ 9:53 am
I just have a hard time understanding what the hell he is singing sometimes. But as I said, he’s improved, and I enjoy his music enough that I purchased his albums. Just still has a little ways to go.
As for Gethen, I love both of his albums. He’s at the top of my outlaw country list.
June 24, 2020 @ 9:35 am
that might be the worst, most pandering album cover i’ve ever seen.
June 24, 2020 @ 10:07 am
A quick look revealed he uses essentially the same art on all 3 of his albums, just a different color scheme on each.
June 24, 2020 @ 10:59 am
I think it’s awesome with the anti America narrative being feed by the media but go ahead beat off isbell the liberal catalog.
June 24, 2020 @ 11:40 am
seems to have had its desired effect… if it had more flags would you like it even more? what if the eagle was holding seven?
amazing that anti-trump, anti-fascist and authoritarian stances are anti-american to some. can’t criticize trump but obama wearing a tan suit and having mustard on his hotdog is fair game.
June 25, 2020 @ 7:01 am
There’s a lot more i could get into about what to hate about everyone’s favorite president but trigger will get all bent out of shape and say stay on topic.
June 25, 2020 @ 1:31 pm
Lol, the top thing on the cover is a fricking Egyptian ANKH, and thegentile is all hot and bothered about “pandering” to American patriotism. Flags and countries are like garlic to vampires.
What is your problem, man? Do you even live in the US of A? Flags are positive. All kinds of good people fought under ours, which was designed with different people in mind. That’s why we have different stripes and so many stars in the first place.
Wear it loud and proud and fly it high!
June 25, 2020 @ 4:14 pm
actually corny, we have 13 stripes for the original colonies and a stripe for each state.
June 25, 2020 @ 4:15 pm
stars for each state*
June 24, 2020 @ 7:03 pm
Is there nothing more than American than critiquing the government? Those who Identify as team “conservative” do not have a monopoly on what is considered patriotic.
June 25, 2020 @ 5:37 pm
Dude, in America, we ARE the government. Let that thought sink in deeper than the quick cynical bitter laugh of “yeah right.”
I’m an old Xer. You can’t out-cynical me. At the end of the tunnel of cynicism, you will eventually see that, to affirm the value of critique, you have to affirm the value of what’s being critiqued. Otherwise, why bother?
The USA is a beautiful, valuable, rare, and excellent thing. It is much bigger than the federal government. It is an idea, and I think it’s even a question, a challenge, as our own national anthem suggests.
But consider that none of that “I love what it can bevome” attitude matters if you don’t first commit to the thing that is becoming. You don’t marry someone because of what they “can become.” You commit because you love them for what they are, and you live alongside them in an exchange that makes you both better.
We don’t say “let’s destroy things before anything can be good.” If you let that hold sway in your heart, you have no reasonable grounds for someone to come along and do the same to you. Where does that leave you? You can try to live that way if you want to, but it will be poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
As we will see before this summer ends.
Unless you are Team Fuck It Let’s Start Over On Mars, you ARE team conservative. Question is, what do you want to conserve?
As for me, country music — for one thing.
June 24, 2020 @ 1:59 pm
Man, this is some trolling bullshit and at an independent artist’s expense. And it has nothing to do at all with the music, which sounds pretty good to me. And it’s the American flag. Do we really have to get triggered over it or try to trigger others?
June 24, 2020 @ 6:41 pm
classic. someone has fairly benign opinion that differs from you = trolling. but it did seem to trigger you, i will give you that.
it looks like their friend with a free trial of photoshop made it.
June 24, 2020 @ 9:16 pm
It was a forgone conclusion. I would have been surprised to not see the script running. Agree on the music. Lots of good stuff to listen to lately.
June 25, 2020 @ 7:40 am
So there’s an American flag behind a logo and it’s pandering?……. Jesus man that’s sad. A ten second look by clicking on the link under the review to buy the album and you can see the eagle thing is the logo he’s used on anything he’s put out going back years. Previous albums, merch etc. It’s called branding. If you actually read the review you would see Trigger even said the MUSIC, which is what I think most of us would consider the important part, was just about the complete opposite of what you’d expect considering the album title. Having listened to the song it’s self the ending chorus line is “I don’t talk politics or religion because it makes people change who they are”. If you get triggered by an American flag and logo so bad you feel you need to make a pandering claim with apparently no research, that says more than enough about you.
June 25, 2020 @ 8:02 am
the logo is also done up in flags. flags on flags. and just because he’s used it more than once doesn’t mean it can’t be ugly. anyways, i think the amount of “discussion” my throwaway comment has made shows what crowd is really triggered.
June 25, 2020 @ 8:16 am
And again where is your issue with the American flag? If that was the confederate flag, I’d be right with you 100%. Your “throwaway” comment was your being triggered enough to make it over a flag without research and I’d be almost willing to bet without listening to the music. You didn’t say it was ugly in that comment, you said “that might be the worst, most pandering album cover i’ve ever seen.” Far cry from it’s ugly, not even in the same channel. Your comment was attempting to question character. You also mentioned anti-trump in another comment. So now the American flag is equated with Trump? I hate that orange jack ass, but I think it says a lot about you that the AMERICAN flag got up in your feelings enough you had to make a pandering comment. You were pandering in the comment just by posting it.
June 25, 2020 @ 8:39 am
worst = bad. what’s the confusion? two separate thoughts (bad album cover and pandering motif), indicated by punctuation. commenting on something doesn’t mean someone is triggered. you’ve written much more on the subject than i originally did.
i don’t have a problem with the american flag (lol), but when the entire album cover is flags and a bald eagle, it’s playing to a very specific crowd. it doesn’t really matter what flag it is, replace it whatever flag you want (confederate to use your example or italy or whatever) and a symbol of that same country and it would be pandering too. i mentioned trump because strait 81 brought up the media and definitely meant it as a fake liberal news hot take.
June 25, 2020 @ 8:56 am
And what crowd is it that you think is triggered?
June 25, 2020 @ 9:08 am
the crowd that is taking my comment about someone else’s album cover as a personal insult.
look everyone, i have an american flag shirt. i’m busting it out next weekend. but this album cover is bad. it’s no piece of art.
June 27, 2020 @ 9:05 am
OK. Maybe I was giving you too much credit? Maybe your comment here (and in other comment sections) was not meant to bait right wing people (I lean decidedly left, by the way), but just a stream of consciousness hot take.
I wasn’t insulted by your comment, but I was very much annoyed by it. This is a review of an independent artist’s new album. Looks like he self-released it and so he isn’t even on an indy label. If you want to take a shot at Clint Black’s new album cover (stars and stripes on the guitar) together with the treacly “patriotic” song on it and his recent tweet associating all protesters with criminals, have at it. He’s a star. This guy’s comparatively obscure. Maybe he’s a big deal where he’s from, but I’ve never heard of him and I’m an active music fan. I wished if you were going to make a comment, you would have addressed the music first.
And once again, it’s the American flag. It’s not the Stars and Bars. Also, there’s the title (and title song) of the album, which probably influenced the design. Me personally, I’m not much of a flag waver. But I am an American and the American flag is my flag. And so I’m not going to make presumptions about someone with a flag t-shirt or bumper sticker. Unless it’s accompanied with additional right wing reactionary messages.
June 24, 2020 @ 9:42 am
“because it all feels very personal to Bryan James.”
That’s what makes the good better- if you don’t feel it, personally, neither will the audience.
June 24, 2020 @ 9:51 am
Sounds like Roy D. Mercer to me
June 24, 2020 @ 10:09 am
Nice review and I’m glad you talked about his songwriting some in there too. Lots of people will like or dislike voices, I’ve even seen people say Jamey Johnson can’t sing worth a shit. But there’s no question this dude can write, go listen to I’m Not Lost on his last album and tell me that you haven’t been there. Agree with Scott, this is his best album of the three. Glad to see you review it, apologies for being a dick the other day.
June 24, 2020 @ 10:29 am
Jamey Johnson is a terrific vocalist. I saw him with Melonie and Buddy Cannon at 3rd and Lindsey last year and it was unbelievable.
June 24, 2020 @ 12:54 pm
I have never, ever, heard Jamey Johnson sound bad on any song. He is as natural as they come.
And I happen to like the cover, Gentile. Hope you find it offensive.
June 24, 2020 @ 1:08 pm
Regarding that “R” sound, I believe this is basically the country equivalent of the “yarl” used by a lot of grunge and post-grunge singers, initially popularized by Eddie Vedder. In fact, I believe Gethen Jenkins, also a practitioner of the country “yarl”, has specifically acknowledged Eddie Vedder as an influence.
I actually think Bryan James’ yarl gives him a bit of a sonic edge, compared to a similar artist like TJ Hernandez. I switched off between James’ and Hernandez’ albums a couple weeks back, sort of played ’em in the background during work, and found James’ voice to be more memorable and therefore (oddly) more appealing.
I need to spend more time with both of these artists, though. Having already listened to a lot of Johnson, Morgan, and Jenkins in recent years, similar “outlaw” artists like James and Hernandez start to blend a little in my mind, and that’s probably not fair.
June 24, 2020 @ 4:42 pm
I was also going to mention the yarl, though I’ve never really felt like Eddie Vedder deserves all of the credit he got for it. After all, Alice In Chains dropped their first album the year before Pearl Jam, and Layne Staley very much also yarls. And before that, we have artists like Ray Charles, George Jones and even Travis Tritt that did it before them, to name a few.
June 26, 2020 @ 7:32 am
You’re absolutely right about Layne Staley. Not sure why I forgot him. Regarding the “country yarl” (can we make that term official?) I defer to the older and more knowledgeable fans on who in the genre used it first, even before any grunge artist.
June 24, 2020 @ 4:28 pm
Johnny Cash nor Kris Kristofferson could sing worth worth a damn. But, they had/have style.
I read years ago that a family member told Willie he’d never make it as a singer- I guess that’s why the who’s of music wanted to record with him.
I remember, Gallagher, the comedian doing a routine once about “style”- he was dead on.
Developing a style takes time- learning to sing to fit your style takes time.
The greats were (20 year) over night success stories- ask Cody Jinks how long he’s been at it- developing a style- yeah, the voice counts, but, means nothing without a personal touch- style.
Let me repeat- “because it all feels very personal to Bryan James.”
That’s what makes the good better- if you don’t feel it, personally, neither will the audience.
The songs here depict a style (to me) developing to fit a personality.
I wonder how many professional critics criticized Pavoratti when he decided to go into pop music.
June 24, 2020 @ 7:33 pm
DJ,
As good as I have ever heard it explained.
October 25, 2020 @ 12:39 pm
Listened to the whole album a few weeks ago after piecemealing some tracks, and I’m inclined to agree. I like plenty of singers who lack *technical* ability, but they have personality and the ability to relate to the listener (or at least a particular type of listener) in spades. Bryan James is one of those. Politics or Religion is one of those albums that exemplifies what I personally love about country music, which is the earthy aesthetic. James sounds like he got up on stage at an open mic night and sang some original songs. I can understand why this might turn off some listeners, particularly those that think every single song needs a shiny MacBook finish. But his lyrics are so affecting to my ears that I just don’t give a crap if he sounds like an angel singing or not. And I don’t even agree with some of the sentiments he expresses.
“Best Thing in My Life” is a wonderful song that reminded me immensely of my relationship with my wife. I played it for her and she said that she was having trouble understanding the words, so I typed them out for her. Oddly, being hard of hearing, it’s normally me that has trouble understanding lyrics in songs. I don’t know if I was just so invested in the songs that the words were clear or if it’s because I have more experience listening to singers that put R sounds behind the words (Travis Tritt, Layne Staley, Scott Stapp, etc.).
June 24, 2020 @ 4:41 pm
Bryan James first is down to earth as they come and just an all round good person at heart. I agree this is his best album so far but that’s the name of the game. As with all good artists they improve and grow as time goes by and Bryan James has done that. Bryan will tell you he’s a story teller and not a great singer. He’s only half right there. His voice has an unique style coupled with his writing style is what his fans are intrigued with. He can trade you on a journey with him through his life and yet make you think he wrote it about you. Bryan James is one of a kind. His fans call themselves #thejamesgang and are begging him to do another album real soon like tomorrow. Much respect to everyone for their opinions
July 16, 2021 @ 11:17 pm
The writing is good, some even kinda great, but the voice is a little too Aaron Lewis-y or something. I dunno, just didn’t really hold my attention. He definitely has potential though for my taste it wouldn’t hurt to forgo that album art. I’m a patriotic American too (by God!) but if I had seen this in a record store I would’ve dismissed it as a new release from Toby Keith or Big and Rich.
June 24, 2020 @ 5:42 pm
Well I know I can speak for many TRUE country fans when I say that Bryan James music is outstanding and he sings his heartfelt song stories very well. I love how you can relate to the words of his music with every day life. Very skilled man and I will be a fan if he goes top of the charts big or simply as he is now. Its mentioned the change in his voice with differant songs, but I understand that totally. You cant sing a slower heartfelt song with everything in you like you can a more upbeat funny song. But I still hear Bryan’s voice in both. If I was gonna be critical at all it’s that I think he can belt it out more if he wanted and I do believe that will come in time. Thanks for your music Bryan James your a great artist and it’s your style and writing that will keep country alive!
June 25, 2020 @ 1:19 pm
Yep, love it. Good fluid lyrics and a feel for chords and music. Country boy proud. I’m in.
Thanks Trig. I’d have never found this else.
October 25, 2020 @ 12:40 pm
Agreed. I would have never been aware of this album or Bryan James if it weren’t covered here and on SCM’s playlist. Thanks, Trigger.
July 1, 2020 @ 1:28 am
Reminds me of Aaron Lewis a bit
July 8, 2022 @ 6:34 am
I received the cd politics and religion signed with a note some one else loved it too I guess coz the stool it ..I’m trying to find it for I can get another I love this CD it is or I should say was all I played in my car and in my home lol please if anyone can help me please please please telle how I can get another CD of politics and religion again I love this CD good luck and please don’t stop playing