J. Roddy Walston and the Business take on life before death

Alex Freund

Mar 8, 20232 min read

What is sweeter than a scoop of your favorite ice cream to top off your last meal? If you are wondering what that has to do with music, you must be new to Tuneful AF. Hi, welcome to the blog full of hypothetical fourth walll breaks and run on sentences.

For a moment I would like you to humor my request, only 44 seconds of your time really, to picture yourself going to a dive bar on a humid summer evening in the south. Before entering the venue, you come upon a person serving ice cream out of the back of a modified hearse. When you ultimately listen to Brave Man’s Death by J. Roddy Walston and the Business, please try to imagine yourself in a world where the first 44 seconds of the song are being played out of previously-mentioned hearse.

For whatever reason the faint repetitive pitched up tune that the emotionally belted vocals are layered over gives me that exact image in my head. An image of a retired hearse getting a second life as a vessel to carry happiness while reminding us all of our eventual fate.

Brave Man’s Death has a gritty, yet approachable, texture to it that mimics the lyrics encapsulated in a 5 minute 21 second journey. Southern rock influences and bayou blues are strewn throughout the grunge gospel-esque track that sits in the middle of the business’s self-titled album. The bassline grooves in a classic blues driven composition and the overdrive fuzz guitar duets the grimey singing to make a powerful presence in any playlist.

Much like an expertly crafted opening sentence to a novel that explores life and death, J. Roddy catches your attention with a balance of comfort and anticipation to take you on a ride we all can relate to.

A ride to find purpose and live out a life that leaves a legacy to remember. At the end of the day, we all want to be known for something right? Taking adulthood head on and facing the inevitable sounds like an admirable legacy to leave behind. Hell, some would even call it brave.