Brooklyn by way of South Carolina, Jay Sanford follows January’s Big Tent Revival with an old-school two-sided (digital) single.
The A-side, “Don’t Fence Me In,” takes a honky-tonk two-step and runs it through a rock engine — same dance-floor bones, more muscle. Sanford lays out the thesis in the chorus: “I do some honky-tonkin’ but don’t fence me in, ’cause just when you think you’ve got me figured out I’ll throw you off in the end.”
Sanford explains further:
There’s a certain pen that musicians get put or fenced in by streaming services, record labels, and the business in general, as it’s ‘easier’ to market and sell. I find it insulting to the listeners for the business to think that they’ll only like something because it’s labeled under a certain genre or subgenre. The best musicians and artists have always not been beholden to one genre — encompassing many, or even becoming the genre themselves, the only thing that comes to define them. But that’s a long-winded explanation of a two-minute song that’s wrapped musically in a country-rock wrapper.
And did I mention that he performs all the instruments himself? Idle hands Sanford doesn’t have.
Twangville is honored to premiere “Don’t Fence Me In,” the first single from Sanford’s forthcoming We All Have An End…But A Sausage Has Two.
About the author: Mild-mannered corporate executive by day, excitable Twangville denizen by night.