Stephanie Lee, also known as Lady Redneck is back with her latest single, Living In The USA. The indie-country queen delivers a nationalistic theme Country track which is a common theme for the genre, but with many other aspects of Lady Rednecks' repertoire, this one is turned on its head just a little bit. Is that a Spanish guitar melody? Living In The USA is a very upbeat, warm, and inviting track with the familiar beauty of the flamenco-style guitar, yet unexpected in a Country gem. With Stephanie Lee’s heavy Country influenced vocals, this veer from the traditional Country melodies showcases more of Lady Redneck’s diversity. The salsa rhythm is like an ode to the charm and elegance of diverse cultural potential. With a musical theme that sounds like it could have been inspired by Carlos Santana this patriotic piece, grabs the beauty and the majesty of the patriotic theme by utilizing the firework metaphor among others. The vocal performance is more contained than in previous releases as Stephanie Lee tends to stay within one register for the majority of the track. This works very well as she still explores the small nuances of each cadence leaving the full dynamic range of her voice to the epilogue of the track.
As a generally outspoken and satirical artist, Lady Redneck is delivering with this single a humble, and reserved performance with a highly polished mix. The contrasting frequencies of the main guitar with the vocals is a perfect counterbalance between call and response melodic patterns. The groove underlying these frequently changing melodic instances, however, is dynamically quantized and provides a steady rhythmic beat in which listeners can sway and swing with ease allowing the performance to keep the party going. Lady Redneck likes to showcase the man facets of her talents throughout her catalog, with Living In The USA, we do get a more reserved Lady Redneck but the performance is quite magnificent all the same. Living In The USA with its creative juxtaposition of theme vs. melody would be a fascinating find on any commercial Soft Rock or Country commercial radio playlist, however, this may be an even greater opportunity to have this track licensed to sporting events and/or film as the infectious melodies keep audiences wanting more.
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