Whether it was recording in Music City that steered Delta Rae toward a country Top 40 sound or some other divine reckoning I can’t rightly tell, but prior to 2017’s A Long and Happy Life EP, the Durham, N.C., band’s material was mostly a theatrical amalgam of pop and soul, with a couple of singles verging on field hollers — curiously sung by a band of beautiful Swedish siblings. What it all means? Who’s to say, but they do it well. Their vocal harmonies are powerful, their stage show is impassioned, and frankly they are the nicest bunch of folks out there, with strong social-justice leanings to boot. (See their response to recent events in Charlottesville, Va., in Rolling Stone Country.) A Long and Happy Life is a catchy country gem, inspired by an English professor and tying in nicely with their Tickets for Teachers program, in which the band gives away tickets to every show to educators — a kind gesture for those who inspire and inform. Whatever their genre is, it’s feel-good, well-intentioned stuff. CY WINSTANLEY
Delta Rae
