The Droptines

One Liner:  Alt-country and good lyrics are still alive and well

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, but this is alt country and Americana and Southern Rock

Home: Concan, Texas

Poster Position: 21
Weekend Two Only.
Sunday at 5:25.

BMI Stage.

Thoughts:  Love the band name.  You'll want to make sure to pronounce it like the pokey parts of a fork, not like "teens."  This is a semi-useless aside, but I was very proud of one particular mule deer I shot one time, because it had a drop tine on it, and everyone at the deer camp was confused because supposedly a muley should never have a drop tine.  May have been some sort of hybrid white tail/mule deer.  I know you are on the edge of your seat with anticipation after that amazing anecdote.  Maybe someday I will write a novel.

The band is from Concan, Texas.  So, I guess we should tell more stories now, right?  Concan is near Leakey, and both of them get to enjoy some of the Frio River.  I've been floating on the Frio in Concan many a time, used to dove hunt near there and stay in Concan after the hunts, and that hybrid deer's head got mounted for me by an old friend who lives in Leakey and does some taxidermy on the side.  Good times.  

Well, this music is likewise some good times - their Spotify bio calls it alt-country/post-country, but it sounds like the Old 97's with the Avett Brothers to me.  Maybe a little psych rock nibbles into the edges as well, as I keep listening through the catalog.  Maybe its more like that 49 Winchester band that was at Two Step Inn?  Their current touring schedule is pretty rad though, if you ask me - playing the Lake Charkes Golden Nugget with Dwight Yoakum, then the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA (RIP REM), and then the Bluebird Theater in Denver.  Legit.

Four guys, led by the vocals and lyrics of Conner Arthur.  One article out there calls him the "King of Concan," so I think they should have a song named that so that I can compare it to "King of Oklahoma" and "King of Alabama."  3 EPs and one album - 2019's The Droptines, 2021's Here's 3, 2022's 4 More, and finally 2024's The Droptines.  "Bill of Sale," originally a 2023 single, has the most streams at 1.6 million.

That voice is a little bit of the deep sound of Cash at the start.  Funny that this is the top streamer, I would definitely not say it is their best tune.  Has a cool throwback sound, but their other tunes definitely are more interesting to me.  Although I do love when it switches up the tempo in the middle.  "Army Green" is pretty damn sad.  Singing to a girl who is living it up back home while he is watching his buddy's blood melt into the sand as he eats MREs and smokes weed.  "Kammi's Pants" sounds kind of like Kings of Leon.  "Raining Where You Are" is a rockin' slice of spiteful poetry.  "New Girl," a 2022 single that never made it onto an EP or album, is the second biggest streamer with just over a million streams.

There's some of that Old 97's guitar jangle and driving drums.  Like the other top single, I'd actually prefer some of these other songs than that one.  But I kinda want to play that horrific goat track of a golf course.  While he can definitely veer off into questionable lyrics, like in "Things I Ain't Got" I'd still say that overall, this is a pretty great little band.