Uncle Lucius fans were thrilled when the band reunited earlier this year after a five year hiatus and now they are releasing their first new album since they started touring together again.
A cathartic comeback album, Like It’s The Last One Left, was written and recorded in Austin and releases on December 8. Easily recognizable is Uncle Lucius’ mix of amped-up Americana and greasy roots-rock, bolstered with string arrangements, adventurous production, and sharp songwriting, says the band’s publicist in a press release.
“There are no limitations this time around,” says frontman Kevin Galloway. “We’re exploring different areas of American roots music, and we’re doing it our own way. There’s a new perspective that comes with stepping away from something for a while, then coming back to it. You can see it with new eyes.”
Uncle Lucius stepped away from the spotlight in March 2018, capping off a whirlwind decade that saw the band releasing four critically acclaimed albums, wearing out five vans, and performing everywhere from Texas to Norway. The guys were some of the state’s most celebrated exports, supported by a cult following that rallied around signature songs like “Keep the Wolves Away” and “The Light.”
During the years that followed Uncle Lucius’ so-called farewell tour, the band’s audience increased rapidly, bringing new generations of fans into the fold. “Keep the Wolves Away” even showed up in an episode of the TV series Yellowstone and went viral, earning gold and platinum certifications along the way. As Uncle Lucius’ legacy grew, so did the desire to get back together.
“After ‘Wolves’ went gold, we got together at a fancy steakhouse in Austin to celebrate and tell old stories,” Galloway remembers. “We started to ask ourselves, ‘Should we reconsider this?’ The iron was hot, and we knew we had more music to offer.”
Months later, the bandmates found themselves back at EAR studio in Austin where they previously recorded their breakthrough album, “Pick Your Head Up” during the late 2000s. Things looked a little different. For starters, Hal Jon Vorpahl — the band’s co-founder and original bass player — was now serving a new role as Uncle Lucius’ producer and behind-the-scenes songwriter.
“He’s like the silent seventh member of the band now,” Galloway explains.
Also occupying new roles were the group’s most recent additions, bassist Drew Scherger and guitarist Doug Strahan, who joined longtime members Mike Carpenter on guitar, Josh Greco on drums, Galloway on vocals, and Jon Grossman on keyboard. The expanded band tracked Like It’s The Last One Left’s 10 songs to analog tape, with everyone playing together in real time, emphasizing the raw energy and pure electricity of a live performance. During the months that followed, they layered the recordings with orchestral strings and background harmonies, adding new dimension to the material.
“We’ve always taken pride in being a great live band, but now we’ve learned to become a seven-headed beast, too,” Galloway says. “We have two guitar players who work together and share leads. We have a producer who writes amazing songs. We all had the freedom to add to these songs and interpret them, and we really created something new together. This is a band album.”
Some say it’s also Uncle Lucius’ finest record to date. Like It’s The Last One Left offers everything from larger-than-life anthems to laidback, loping Tex-Mex.
It begins with “Keep Singing Along,” an atmospheric blast of funky-tonk, anchored by a seize-the-day message that suits the band’s 2020s resurgence, followed by a stomping “Civilized Anxiety,” the heartland rocker “Trace My Soul,” “I’m Happy,” and “Tuscaloosa Rain” which channels Dusty Springfield and Burt Bacharach, complete with swooning orchestration from the Tosca String Quartet and stacked harmonies from the vocal duo US (Sir Woman, Wild Child).
US also appears on “Holly Roller,” a track that’s equal parts roadhouse rock song and gospel-worthy freakout, while Cody Braun (Reckless Kelly) plays fiddle on “All the Angelenos,” a humorous jab at the carpetbaggers who’ve relocated to Austin in the hopes of capitalizing on the city’s boom town status. Things come to a close with “Heart Over Mind,” another track that balances Uncle Lucius’ adventurous Americana with gorgeous melodies, symphonic strings, and the croon of Galloway’s voice.
Rooted in lyrics about resolve and resilience, Like It’s The Last One Left blurs the boundaries between genre and generation. It’s a battle cry from a band that’s rededicated itself to fighting the good fight, trading the breakneck pace of the group’s past for something a little more swaggering, stabilizing, and singular.
“Remember to breathe,” Galloway sings during the album’s final moments, delivering those lines like a veteran road warrior who’s seen his share of exhaustion. He sings about that concept too in “Civilized Anxiety,” written by Vorpahl.
“My hands are shaking and my skin is crawling outta my skin / There’s no mistaking for the shape that things are taking my friend / My eyes are twitching and the situation’s sifting pretty thin / So I gotta get to going fore the swarmageddon starts to rolling in.
“There’s too many people / With too many places to be / And this concrete cannibal coffin is suffocating me / Civilized anxiety.
“Out behind some pine trees / That is where you’ll find me / Taking my time and just trying to breathe / Back behind some pine trees / That’s the place where you will find me / Just trying to hide from society.”
That the pine trees would serve as a shield of relief is no surprise. Both Vorpahl and Galloway have roots in East Texas — Galloway from Big Sandy, and Vorpahl from Lufkin.
“There’s a certain madness that comes with living in a city like Austin, Texas,” Galloway says when describing the song. “People, like ants, move to and fro upon an infrastructure that will never catch up to the pace of population growth. Sometimes the cacophony and gridlock can be overwhelming. Sometimes you just want to drop everything and run toward the peace and tranquility of nature.”
Vorpahl says, “‘Civilized Anxiety’ was written about feeling the pressure of overpopulation and the experience of that pressure sometimes being too much to take. I wrote the song after having an experience like this in a packed grocery store very early post-pandemic. Fighting for a parking spot, fighting for a grocery cart, fighting to get down the aisle for some oatmeal, it all became way too much, way too fast. I left my cart in the middle of the aisle, went home to grab the dog, and headed out to the middle of nowhere East Texas for a couple of weeks.
“I had everything cooking in my head on the way over. I stopped at Lightnin’s statue in Crockett and cut a quick phone demo.”
It’s a fitting spot to have recorded the demo for “Civilized Anxiety.” The Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins statue on South Third Street in Crockett, Texas, memorializes the legendary bluesman, who was born on a farm west of there and played music along the avenue in the 1930’s and 40’s when it was known as “Camp Street.”
Nearly a century later and Uncle Lucius — dutiful chroniclers of the darkest sides of modern life — are in full-on hellfire-and-brimstone mode with their own unique take on blues indebted rock.
There’s always been a profound belief in the power of escapism in the music of Uncle Lucius, and as “Civilized Anxiety” unfurls slowly towards its close, that escapism becomes real and leaves listeners a feeling of hope.
Uncle Lucius performs at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas on December 29 and is sure to be scheduled again soon in the Upper East Side of Texas. Keep up with their schedule and purchase music on www.yourunclelucius.com.