Stephen Wilson Jr.’s brand of country — especially his deep, emotive voice and love of a good acoustic guitar riff — has always conjured up a bit of bygone-era alt-rock. On his new song “Hardwired,” he recruits Miranda Lambert for a blue-collar anthem
that goes there literally, interpolating the Pixies’disarming “Where Is My Mind?” from their debut LP, Surfer Rosa.
Using both the familiar riff and eerie chorus, Wilson creates a world where constant hard living and exhaustion can often push a body and mind to the edge. Watch the appropriately early-MTV-esque visualizer, directed by Jace Kartye, below.
“I’m very much an indie-rock kid at heart,” the former microbiologist told Rolling Stone. “But I’m a country songwriter. I write songs from a rural perspective and a blue-collar perspective.”
“Hardwired,” written by Wilson, Lambert, Jesse Frasure, and Adam Hood, is another exploration into the working-class condition from the Rolling Stone Future 25artist, whose song “Gary” tracked the kind of guy with an unglamorous name whose equally unglamorous labor is the quiet, forgotten heartbeat of American life. Both tracks are expected to be included on the follow-up to 2023’s acclaimed Son of Dad LP.
Interpolating the Pixies classic is not the first time Wilson has dabbled in resurrecting grunge and alternative rock hits. On last year’s Blankets EP, he offered versions of the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight,” the Postal Service’s “Clark Gable,” Nirvana’s “Something in the Way,” and Temple of the Dog’s “Hunger Strike.”
On the road through fall, Wilson’s next stop is at the St. Augustine Theater in St. Augustine, Florida, on Aug. 7.
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