Ernest Aines – “Yellowstone”
Ernest Aines – “Yellowstone” – Single Review
There are a lot of folks out there that could learn a thing or two from this guy right here – Ernest Aines gets it…take your time, and do it right. Make the music YOU want to make, how YOU want to make it.
This is essentially crossover sound at its finest, and a completely flawless cut. The reality is that, chances are, most people out there would consider his new single “Yellowstone” to be a part of the Country genre, or perhaps a form of what you know as Americana…heck, even parts of this track with the banjo melody could maybe even be considered to be Bluegrass in some strange world – my point is, if you’ve been reading these pages of ours for…hmm…I guess the past decade or so, you’d know full well that it’d be extremely rare for me to dig on tunes from ANY of those genres. I ain’t sayin’ that it hasn’t happened in some way, shape, or form…but yeah…freakishly rare to say the least, and undoubtedly even rarer if you’re considering the many different elements & genres this particular single adds into the mix as it plays on. To borrow a tried, tested, and true phrase for a moment here – I don’t like this…I LOVE it.
Admittedly, I’ve been listening to a whole lot of music lately that almost feels like the people making it had to add in every word & syllable into the mix – “Yellowstone” felt like the complete opposite of that. Ernest draws out the imagery in his lyricism & words BRILLIANTLY – at HIS pace…not some crazy notion of what he thinks we’d want, or some rushed set of nonstop details that runs the full length of the music. Not only does his method work incredibly well – listen to how EFFECTIVE it is, will ya? There’s not a thing about “Yellowstone” that is anything less than entirely interesting and extremely engaging.
If I had to hazard a guess, I’d imagine that Aines is absolutely thrilled with how “Yellowstone” came out, and rightly so if he is – he should be…there’s not a solitary second I’d change about it. From the true grit in his vocals & the intensity of the melody he sings with, to the stellar instrumentation surrounding him from the banjo to the beat, to the slide guitars & everything else in between – I’m tellin’ ya folks – Ernest has found all the right ingredients to cook you up something seriously special with “Yellowstone.”
LISTEN to the pace though…that’s where the magic is really on display, and rivals his uncanny ability to use melody in such an impressive mix of haunting intensity. You don’t NEED to use every word in the dictionary to make a great song…you just need the right ones, and to be sure of what you’re singing about – the confidence you’ll hear in Ernest’s music & vocals is the real unsung hero of this song, 100%. Most of what he’s singing is really only a few words or a handful per line – and MAN is it everything we need to hear or what? The metering, pace, and potency is spectacularly spot-on…to the point where Aines has set up a real challenge for himself to get as quality of a performance in this song playing it live as you’ll hear on this recording right here. No joke folks…it ain’t gonna be easy – that’s exactly how perfect “Yellowstone” has come out in this version you’ll hear…I LOVE IT when everything sounds like it was meant to be! The lyrical imagery is as sensational as the way he sings it…it’s an EXPERIENCE y’all.
As much as I LOVE the verses in this song…which I do, completely – I gotta admit, the chorus really does end up bringing “Yellowstone” to that next-level you wanna hear, which in itself is impressive considering how great this song has been the entire distance through to that point. I’ll tell ya why that is though…to me, it’s not intentionally obvious, but it’s like the addition of the backing vocals came straight out of the INXS playbook for how to make the melody of the hooks achieve maximum results. So yep…that checks out too – there’s truly not a thing in “Yellowstone” that doesn’t – Ernest Aines has ticked every box in all the right ways…and he’s genuinely made a massive fan out of me with this single.
Find out more about Ernest Aines from his official website at: https://www.ernestaines.com
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