“Doubt is not weakness. Weakness is allowing doubt to decide for you” – this is roughly what any Clint Eastwood character would say if he knew how to formulate thoughts between shots. And if we speak about the musical expression of this idea, then it would sound just like “Your Arrows” – the new single by the Welsh folk-rock band Rusty Shackle, released on May 8 and opening the count toward their upcoming album “Mayfield”.
And it all begins – attention – with a self-satisfied drum intro that from the very first bars tells you: relax, we know what we’re doing. Rusty Shackle enter the room knowing where the best chair is. Conceptually, “Your Arrows” resembles a small genre trick. The band takes images of the American western – arrows, aim, choosing the moment – and uses them to talk about things fundamentally modern: doubt, listening to other voices instead of your own. The metaphor works precisely because it is not overemphasized, a cinematic volume arises without Hollywood bang-bang.
The compressed drama of the western – a story of moral choice – the band transfers into music. And now about what really takes your breath away. Rusty Shackle are six people, and all six sing. The choral parts in “Your Arrows” are a structure-forming element. When in the chorus all six voices converge into a single battle cry, what happens is what in academic music is called “unison of affects”, and in life is called goosebumps.
The lead vocal floats above the choral foundation, creating an effect rare and valuable: a person speaks on their own behalf, but behind them stands a community. A group of people who decided that doubt is not a sentence at all. The blues rhythmic layout of the track is the foundation of “Your Arrows”: tension and release, question and answer, doubt and determination. Rusty Shackle work in such a way that the music physically moves through you, like Led Zeppelin once did. Only they add to it the color of Wales – the violin. The violin creates textural layers between the guitar parts, impressionistically filling the space.
Rusty Shackle have existed since 2010. During this time they have released five studio albums, received the Wales Folk Award, and their record “Under a Bloodshot Moon” reached the second line of the British folk chart. On August 29 the guys will present the new album “Mayfield” in full against the backdrop of the walls of Caldicot Castle – it is hard to come up with scenery more appropriate for their music. “Your Arrows” is an arrow released at the right moment that flies far. Even if you aimed for a long time.
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