Just in time for the U.S. midterm elections, Beltway Recording Company are releasing their latest single. A searing reflection on the country’s current political outlook, Taylor Grant Bauley, the voice behind the one-person band, tells PopMatters, “‘Coup’ was the first song I wrote for the record. I did a version that was just guitar and a vocal that I liked, but then had the idea to do a sort of Sun Records thing with it; a chugging beat, and more uptempo. I snagged rhythm and vibe from a video of R.L. Burnside playing ‘See My Jumper Hanging on the Line’, filmed by Alan Lomax. It’s absolutely incredible, and I wanted to try to capture some of that energy. This song is very blatantly about the current presidential administration and occupant of the Oval Office.”
The jangling, fervent blend of blues and rock stylings on the track offers itself naturally to the fiery attitude conveyed in the lyrics. Bauley’s vocals saunter down front-and-center, offering just the right amount of grit to keep its air of protest and indignation alive and stouthearted. “Coup D’etat” comes from Beltway Recording Company’s album, Outer Sounds From the Inner Loop, which is set for release on WarHen today. The Richmond singer-songwriter wrote, delivered, and recorded each track on the album, with each of its 12 tunes offering an entirely different character, story, and set of vocals and styles to go along with it.
The wildly varied album is held together by Bauley’s raw musicianship paired alongside his artistic intent behind the album, to make a political jab at the ludicrous world of “fake news” that we live in today. He recorded everything on a 4-track in his garage, foregoing editing and crediting each of the tunes to a different fictional artist. The Beltway Recording Company name itself comes from the nickname that Washington DC has garnered since the Capital Beltway was made to encircle it in 1964.