Judah & the Lion

One Liner:  Popular combination of bluegrass sounds into hip hop-tinged pop rock.

Wikipedia Genre:  Americana, bluegrass, folk, rock, hip hop, electropop
Home: Nashville

Poster Position: 8

Both Weekends.

Thoughts: Totally thought this was going to be some sort of Christian band.  I know there was a Judah in the Bible, but I couldn't remember squat about his tale and what it had to do with a lion.  After some hunting, I think Judah was more important to the Jewish faith than the Christians.  Judah's Lion is "a Jewish national and cultural symbol, traditionally regarded as the symbol of the Israelite tribe of Judah. According to the Torah, the tribe consists of the descendants of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The association between Judah and the lion can first be found in the blessing given by Jacob to his son Judah in the Book of Genesis."  

Genesis 49 contains that blessing, where he actually calls Judah the lion's cub (but also a lion and a lioness?): "Judah,your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you.  [ed note, Judah sounds like a badass]  You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son.  Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs[d] shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.[Ed note, well now the dude sounds terrifying, only wearing purple clothes, with dark purple eyes and extra white teeth?  Yikes.  Some evil sounding shit.]

So I was surprised to start the first song and realize that I hear this track on alternative rock radio all the time.  "Take It All Back," with 48.4 million streams is their top track.

Pretty solid song.  Kinda weird though, like combining mandolin and banjo with hip hop-ish beats and a singer who sounds kinda like when Eminem sings.  Oh, and their album is very unfortunately named Folk Hop N' Roll, which makes me want to die.  I liked the song much more before I read that album name.

That album, which was actually their second disc, was released in 2016 and also has their second biggest hit, "Suit and Jacket," with 36.2 million streams.

Yeah, that one is pretty solid too.  Weird, now that I've compared his yelling voice to Eminem's singing voice, I can't shake the comparison.

Three dudes - and they met at Belmont University at Nashville.  The lead singer's real name is Judah, and then met up with two dudes who happened to play mandolin and banjo, respectively, and created the new band.  Oh, hey, and when they started, it was a Christian band - they won a Belmont University Christian Showcase, and their first EP (which is not available on Spotify) was a Christian worship collection.  So I wasn't totally wrong in thinking of them as a Christian thing.  Back in the day, they even opened for Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, another ACL band this year.

They just released a new album on August 7, 2019, called Pep Talks.  I actually heard one of these songs on the radio the other day, and since I knew these dudes were on the ACL poster I stayed there to check it out.  And it is a truly terrible song.  "Why Did You Run?" is apparently the first single from this album, and it takes their mandolin/banjo thing and runs it through a machine that has only ever heard that terrible Chainsmokers/Coldplay collaboration song, and thus can only make semi-EDM/quasi-indie rock songs.  Up to just over 4 million streams so far, here you go.

I mean, even that video is treacly try hard - he sees the girl and immediately gets a crumpled paper heart to unfold? Its all so painfully earnest and fake joyful with crappy EDM elements.  Ugh.  BUT, they do have a song with Kacey Musgraves on it, and she has never done anything wrong ever, so they may actually be redeemable.

The opening of the new album tries to copy the opening of The Greatest Showman.  Woaaaahhhhhhhooooohhhhh singing and some tense stops/starts.  Then the first real song is more rock and roll than anything else - pounding drums and chanting lyrics.  And then the Chainsmokers-ass song.  "i'm ok" starts to sound like they want to be 21 Pilots, and he still sings like Eminem.  "Don't Mess With My Mama" is truly horrible.  "17" sounds like bad Blink 182.  And, from listening to the tearful voice mails they include here during an anthemic session of them yelling that the BEEESSST IS YET TO COOOOOOOOMMMEEE!!! I know that this was somehow important and cathartic to them, but the album is not good.

Funny band, because they started out a totally different thing.  Those mandolins and banjos used to be legitimately used to make nice music - like the nice Americana track "Our Love," from the 2013 EP Sweet Tennessee - that don't try so hard to be hip and they come off really well.  "Hesitate" is really pretty!  And "Southern Ground" is a fun bluegrass barnburner!  Feels like these guys had a certain trajectory back in this 2013 disc - and it was laid on a foundation of real musicianship and fast fingers.  I mean, just look at that Wikipedia genre listing up there - everything from Bluegrass to Hip Hop - that isn't normal.

The first real album was 2014's Kids These Days, and it shifts their sound slightly - it isn't quite the full shift into hip hop beats, but it becomes more stadium friendly, a broader sound that still uses the banjo and mandolin, but goes more for an earnest rock and roll sound, like the new Mumford sound.  But some still retain the bluegrass sound entirely.  "Mason-Dixon Line" is obvious, but even the driving, danceable jam of "Rich Kids" is like an exuberant mash of bluegrass sounds with rock.  Not a bad album.  "Twenty-somethings" has the most streams at 6.6 million.

Eating Arby's on the ground is never a good idea, folks.  I don't care how you are doing on money, there has to be a better option.  Or at least know the nearest bathroom.  Also, you have to love all these dudes in $150 Patagonia fleeces filming themselves going into Goodwill to shop for clothes.  So downhome and relatable!  But the song itself is actually really good - nice, pretty ode to the insecurities and joys of an age.

I don't know.  My instinct is that I don't want to see a band with an album called Folk Hop N' Roll.  But probably, if I just relax and stop being all judgy and shit, I'd have fun at this show.  We'll see how the schedule shakes out.