The Red Clay Strays Are Keeping the Southern Rock Faith

Those who know the Red Clay Strays only for their TikTok love song “Wondering Why” are about to have their socks blown off. On the new album Made by These Moments, the Mobile, Alabama, five-piece destroy any notion that they’re just a social-media phenomenon and emerge as a blistering rock & roll band, one well on its way to revitalizing a certain brand of muscular Southern rock.

While the Red Clay Strays have been mostly associated with country or roots music since the release of their 2022 album Moment of Truth (they’re nominated for Emerging Act of the Year at this year’s Americana Honors), the new Made by These Moments veers more toward the hard blues-rock of Los Angeles in the late Eighties and early Nineties than anything coming out of Nashville today. Tracks like the ominous “Disaster” and the roadhouse boogie of “Ramblin’” evoke Nineties bands the Four Horsemen and Junkyard — two L.A. groups that, while lumped into the fading MTV metal genre, were distinctly Southern rock in their sounds and influences.

Producer Dave Cobb may have something to do with that. While he’s primarily known for his Grammy-winning work with Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, and Brandi Carlile, he’s also an unapologetic hard-rock fan who has made killer records for Slash, Greta Van Fleet, and Blackberry Smoke. When given a band as eager to bust through the gate as the Strays, Cobb just has to give them a kick with the spurs.

But Made by These Moments isn’t undisciplined. Red Clay Strays singer-guitarist Brandon Coleman leads his band through 11 tight songs that never overstay their welcome or indulge in meandering jams. The group’s lyrics — written primarily by the Strays, along with Coleman’s siblings Matthew and Dakota — actually say something. “Devil in My Ear” rails against temptation, anxiety and self-doubt; “Wasting Time” eviscerates the vultures that are out for both their money and their soul; and the single “Wanna Be Loved” lays bare humanity’s desire for someone to deem them worthy enough.

Often in the Red Clay Strays’ songs, that Someone is God. The band members don’t hide their faith, but they also don’t hit listeners over the head with it either. Instead, they elegantly weave in calls to a higher power for help, clarity, and reassurance over many of the album’s tracks.

In “No One Else Like Me,” Coleman pleads to be set free. “I’m a broken writer/I’m a restless fighter/and I’m looking for a little hope,” he sings in his Elvis Presley meets Gregg Allman croon over slide guitar accents. In “Wanna Be Loved,” the group wrestle with the challenges of believing in a modern world: “Oh God I need to know you’re still above.” And in “Disaster,” they make their most overt allusion to Jesus and the sacrifice of his crucifixion (“The One we laid down to turn dark to light”).

But “Drowning,” a solo write by Strays guitarist Drew Nix sung with a Stapleton growl by Coleman, puts redemption and rescue squarely in the hands of the narrator: “If I can just find one way to stay afloat/I’ll find my way back to shore again.” All he asks is that the world throws him a lifeline.

The Red Clay Strays may not explicitly be out to proselytize, but Made by These Moments does have the power to convert — at least to rock & roll.