Years Beers Her Tears was the first time I ran into Rae Isla. It was at least two months ago but it feels like I have known her my whole life. It was a tip from Ali Angel that sent me to Rae and I will be forever grateful. I have seen reels of them jamming and rehearsing together and I dearly hope they do a duet or similar soon. A show in London would be very welcome indeed.
I must have listened to this song every day of those two months and I still cannot get enough of it. It's cool, happy, sad – even tragic – and it riffs on gender identity in so many interesting ways that I lost count.
It's a catchy tune, but those lyrics. Sometimes people tell me it is my attraction to lyrics, to the story, and what they might say about the artist, that differentiates my writing from others. I don't know, I'm not the right person to tell you, but I absolutely recommend Rae Isla to absolutely everyone who likes Americana. And everyone who doesn't.
In my research on Rae, I have discovered that her live shows are a little more than your typical gig. She brands herself a "traveling bard" which I love. I hear she likes a good chat between songs. Bard suggests more than a singer or musician, but a storyteller, and her songs certainly tell captivating stories.
In Years Beers she tells a story of her own coming of age. It feels so personal and she wrote an Instagram post which confirms that although she originally wrote it for a male singer "every word" turned out to be her own personal story and she decided to keep it for herself, and I am very happy that she did.
The father in the song is an unreliable, greedy and narcissistic alcoholic and it is clear the singer drinks a lot as well. She uses beer to mask her problems. She loves her mother and grandmother. One of the killer details that made me appreciate Rae even more is that reference to playing rummy with grandma. I can hardly call that image to mind without some tears of my own forming. That there can be such tranquility in such an up and down home life. She is determined that no girlfriend of hers will ever have to worry that she might not come home at the end of a night. She's one of the lads sometimes, someone who realises that sometimes it is the women who make the men. Is she striving to be a good woman, or a good man?
I think at the end of this song, which I have just played three times in a loop to make sure I don't miss anything, my overriding memory is her infinite love for her mother. Despite everything, she has some crucial and loving family ties.
The next song I came across was Stones and I include a live version of it below because I think it adds things which are not so obvious in the studio recording.
Rae is very active on social media, especially TikTok and Instagram, and those platforms are so good for bringing us closer to the music and to the musicians themselves. I'm always pleased when a Rae Isla story slips across my screen. She just exudes kindness and authenticity and she thinks so deeply that it feels like we're all in safe hands, the whole human race. In Stones, she's worrying about mental health, about the big ticket things in life, in all our lives. She's so great on a stage, confident standing in the middle of her band, strumming and singing. Her personality and charisma are obvious.
One of the reasons I love Rae Isla so much is the candid way she examines gender roles, and indeed her own gender identity. It might be getting a little easier here in the UK but it does not make these conversations easy. I imagine in the American South these are even more challenging conversations. Rae is from Washington State, somewhere she refers to as "a WA island" and elsewhere I found it is Bainbridge Island. If that sounds remote, it offers stunning views of Seattle. It sounds like a perfect mix of rural but near enough to civilisation. She is currently based in LA, but she tours all over America often. She's a true wandering bard.
Rae Isla is touring extensively in August. Her next single, Traveling On, is available to pre-save now and is out on 25 June. The full album, New Frontier, is out July 19th so I will have much more to write about Rae Isla this summer and I'm excited about that. She is such a unique voice. I just realised what her secret is. Man, she's lived.
