A promising new artist and a reliable veteran are featured today.
“Gone to Dust”
Scoot Teasley
Written by Nicolas Sainato, Scoot Teasley, and John Townsend
Jonathan Keefe: Teasley is such a forceful presence on record that he always sounds like a star, even when the songs he’s singing aren’t quite up to the caliber of his performances. There’s been an element of fake it til you make it on the singles he’s released to date, and that’s true on “Gone to Dust.” I believe that Teasley believes what he’s singing here, and that credibility can overcome a lot.
As mainstream singles go, this is still far more distinctive than whatever Warren Zeiders or Nate Smith or Russell Dickerson have at radio right now. The titular phrase– particularly with how Teasley delivers it in the chorus– deserves a more fleshed-out narrative about a doomed relationship than what’s here, but the first verse does at least offer a couple of vivid images. “How it sits up on the top side of the vinyl / Just to kick up when the music finally starts” tips its hat to the opening of Miranda Lambert’s “Vice” in a way I can get behind.
Ultimately, “Gone to Dust” is a single that Teasley elevates with a committed performance, and, in turn, it’s a single that would elevate country radio at least a little. Teasley really just needs a knockout of a song, because he’s absolutely got the goods. B-
Kevin John Coyne: Teasley is a promising singer-songwriter who has a strong enough mastery of country and rock conventions to mix and match them effectively on the rollicking “Gone to Dust.”
Teasley thankfully resists the temptation to make the production too busy, which makes the electric guitar work more impactful in the few places that it surfaces.
It’s a record that sounds more interesting than the lyric warrants, despite some interesting turns of phrase, thanks to Teasley’s intense performance. (This man could do a workshop for Music Row brodudes on how to sound intense without screaming or wailing.) B
“Bury Me”
Jason Isbell
Written by Jason Isbell
KJC: I wonder if going back to Southeastern on its 10th anniversary, shook something loose in Isbell, as the single is the first record that he has released since that seminal album that would fit perfectly within its track listing.
“Bury Me” has an a cappella opening that recalls “Live Oak,” but their similarities end with the arrangement and the graveyard setting. Still, the use of that song’s title in this one’s lyric cannot have been accidental. The stark honesty of this track is as emotionally revealing as the earlier song’s rambling murder confession, and a bit more sympathetic, too.
I have a feeling it’s going to work better within the context of the album then as a standalone single. It feels very much like a nucleus that will be built around. But it still top shelf Jason Isbell, and we need some of that in 2025. A
JK: For someone who says a lot about how he isn’t a country artist, Isbell leans the whole way into some of the genre’s most familiar tropes– outlaws, cowboys, prison– on “Bury Me.” Being the songwriter that he is, of course, Isbell approaches each of those in a way that’s legitimately clever without making a whole big to-do about it; as Kevin noted, “Bury Me” is twinned to “Live Oak” in a way that’s clearly intentional, and Isbell’s not going to let some showboating pull focus from the narrative here.
I love that Isbell has the confidence in his singing to launch a new album cycle a capella, and he delivers a performance that fully inhabits this narrator’s interior life. Great as The 400 Unit are, “Bury Me” highlights how Isbell’s gifts have only deepened over time and that he’s ready for another solo turn. A few generations ago, some of the genre’s premiere interpreters might’ve turned this into a hit at country radio; in 2025, it took all of two weeks to reach #1 on the Americana radio chart. Sometimes, it all comes together just right. A
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