Julian Talamantez Brolaski understands rhythm. As a poet, their grasp of sound, rhythm, and silence permeates the traditional country sounds of It’s Okay, Honey. Brolaski was a guest a few months ago on the Rainbow Rodeo podcast, but as the Earth slowly wends its way towards the completion of another orbit (by our calendar) it’s worth a return to their album It’s Okay, Honey — an album that is as much about endings as it is about what comes after them.
Brolaski prods the borders of traditional country even as their sincere love for the music shines through. As we discussed in the podcast, the yodeling found in classic country was formative for Brolaski’s musical and gender identity. That affection is on full display here, with Brolaski planting themselves firmly in a storied tradition while flouting its patriarchal and racist foundations. Songs like “Goin to Nashville” and “No More Lonesome Heartache” belong on dive bar juke boxes everywhere, but there’s an attention to wordplay in these lyrics that punches these songs above drinkin’, cryin’, and fightin’ music.
The arresting “Gourd Flower” illustrates Brolaski’s talent for arrangement. The lyrics are a poem by David Larsen, which gives the song an ethereal quality. Brolaski pulls out all the stops — stretching silences, switching tempo and volume, extending those yodels they’re so good at — to wed that weird magic poetry exudes to music that’s all too often taken for granted.
It’s that vision that gives It’s Okay, Honey an expansive quality, as if Brolaski is standing on top of the mountain, having said their goodbyes to the past, to survey the landscape of the future. It’s lonely at the top, but maybe the valley will be a more inviting place.
NOTE: Brolaski interviewed Melissa Carper for Rainbow Rodeo #3 — which you can now purchase in color, black and white, or as an eBook!
Julian Talamantez Brolaski — Official, Instagram, Facebook, Spotify