Khruangbin & Leon Bridges Celebrate the Holidays in the “Texas Sun”

Chris Daly brings seasons greetings in the form of this leadoff track from this stirring collaboration.
By    December 10, 2019

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All Santa had for Chris Daly was coal.

In what hopefully is now officially a tradition, dusty trail rockers, Khruangbin, have dropped another holiday time single.  OK, this one isn’t a Charlie Brown Christmas reinterpretation, but so long as it’s new music, who really cares?

“Texas Sun,” this year’s stocking stuffer, actually is the opening single from an upcoming joint release between the Texan trio and Leon Bridges, their fellow Lone Star state brethren. The eponymous track is the first taste from a four-track EP set to drop on Feb. 7 on Dead Oceans, in partnership with Columbia Records and Night Time Stories Ltd., because even with such uncertainly in the pork bellies market, a lot of people still want to get their son the G.I. Joe with the kung-fu grip.

While Khruangbin is known predominantly for its instrumental, chilled bliss and Brother Leon tends to fall into more of a soulful vocalist category, you’d be forgiven for thinking the four of them have been playing together for years. Bridges rich, plaintive voice melds perfectly with the flamenco-by-way-of-Houston guitar stylings of Mark Speer and the black gold burbling bass of Laura Lee while DJ Johnson keeps time in the pocket as well as any Timex in your corduroys could hope to.

“We try not to have too much of an intention, because it gets in the way of what the music wants to do,” Lee revealed. “If you just let the music do what it’s supposed to do, it will reveal itself. We tried to take that same approach with Leon. For us, it was opening up our world to have another person in it. But all of it feels like Texas to me.”

Since you’ve all been such good boys, girls and assorted others this year, here’s a bonus, live rendition of the song with Speer in a gold suit and Lee looking as glam as can be because that’s rock ‘n roll, goddamn it.

Feliz Navidad, y’all.

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