Single from the upcoming EP ‘Live Slow Die Old’ out Oct 23.
Desert Blonde, a.k.a. the Brooklyn-based musician Zach Hinkle, has shared “Stay For Good,”–the second single from his upcoming new EP, Live Slow Die Old–along with a new video for “It Ain’t Bad (To Be Alone).”
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p style=”text-align:justify;”>Hinkle’s dry-witted, sincere lyricism and tear-in-your-beer Western soundscapes make the songs on Live Slow Die Old feel as though they’ve always existed, just waiting for someone to come around and pluck them from the dirt. It’s a stripped down record with simplicity as its main ingredient — the perfect soundtrack to accompany evenings on the porch swing.
“Stay For Good” premieres at Various Small Flames, who’ve described it as a combination of “the traditional country spirit of Blaze Foley and Townes Van Zandt with the sincerity of Conor Oberst, plus some of the dry wit of John Prine.” Hinkle describes the tune as a break up song: “I was picturing a couple going back and forth, trading shots. The chorus is that moment when one of them realizes they’re not going to win, so now it’s a game of getting them back and not pushing them away.”
Hinkle, today, has also shared a video for the EP’s lead single “It Ain’t Bad (To Be Alone)” — an ode and a hat-tip to life’s quiet, peaceful moments, for fans of John Prine and Jeff Tweedy. The video was shot in Idaho, where Zach and his wife isolated during quarantine. Ironically, Hinkle wrote the tune before the pandemic was a reality: “It’s for all of the introverts out there. We’re all spending more time alone these days, so for anyone who’s having a hard time with that, maybe they’ll hear it and think things aren’t so bad.”
A musician since his teens, Hinkle was the guitar player in the Atlanta-based art-punk band The Letters Organize, whose record Dead Rhythm Machine was praised by AllMusic as a “…ferocious debut.” Since 2018, Desert Blonde has released three EPs, Far Out, Ancient History, and Connecticut Turnpike Breakdown Blues, along with several singles.
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