![]() “To me, this album is a natural progression, but you’d have to have paid attention to not be surprised by it,” Yelawolf tells Rolling Stone in his dressing room after soundcheck. Sometimes Y - the title is a reference to the fluid nature of rules, as in “ a, e, i, o, u, and …” - is a musical experiment it’s also the sleeper rock album of the year. There are shades of new wave, Eighties metal, and country, all delivered with swaggering Liam Gallagher energy by Yelawolf. ![]() ![]() Hard-charging tracks like “Jump Out the Window” and “Make Me a Believer” are full of synths and sharp guitars and call to mind “One Vision”-era Queen. For starters, he sings, while live musicians, including bassist Ted Russell Kamp, guitarist John Schreffler, and drummer Jamie Douglass of Jennings’ solo band, play behind him. Produced by Shooter Jennings, who previously worked on Grammy-winning releases by Brandi Carlile and Tanya Tucker, the album introduces a new and unexpected Yelawolf. Sometimes Y, released back in March, is different. Some fans howl at the stage, and nearly all rap back to Yelawolf when he warns, “Don’t make me go pop the trunk,” the payoff line of his brooding breakout song “Pop the Trunk.” At his show later that night, older guys in biker leathers mingle with teenagers in camo and snapbacks, young Black girls slide into a Ryman church pew next to white dudes in hoodies that read “Slumerican,” Wolf’s record label. Since the release of the mixtape Trunk Muzik in 2009, the Alabama-born/Tennessee-raised Yelawolf - né Michael Wayne Atha - has amassed a rabid pack of diverse followers, all drawn to his rapped tales of poverty, rural hardship, and the never-ending hustle. It also smacked his own fans upside the head. Yelawolf’s rock awakening didn’t just catch the Ryman tourists off-guard. It’s the perfect metaphor: a symbol that a musical change is about to take place. At that moment, a small crew of stagehands detach the photo-op old-timey staircase and quickly roll it out of the auditorium. “It’s a fucked-up day,” he snarls, emphasizing the F-word as he runs through a track off his 2022 left-turn rock album, Sometimes Y. Dressed in khaki pants, a striped sweater, bucket hat, and eyeglasses, he’s more of an unassuming dad. To be fair, Yelawolf doesn’t much resemble his fearsome moniker. On this November afternoon, a few gray-haired stragglers of the day’s final tour group are doing just that - paying little mind to the Southern rap star trying to soundcheck behind them. At the end of every tour of Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, country music fans have the opportunity to ascend a small staircase and have their photo taken on the very stage where legends like Hank Williams and Johnny Cash once stood.
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