We bless the Skynyrd of the Lynyrd, the Molly of the Hatchet, R.E.M. (yes, sons of Athens, R.E.M.), Drive-By Truckers and any and all Allman Brothers and various offshoots and side projects. We particularly bless Fox Green, good ol’ boys (OK, how about middle-aged men?) of Little Rock. The Southerness is not particularly pronounced with Fox Green but it’s hardly hidden either on their third album, “Light Over Darkness,” which features not one but two songs with “Jesus” in their titles that may or may not be entirely sincere.
Fox Green arrived in 2020 with “The Longest April,” an album made during COVID and seemingly about COVID that wasn’t as bleak as all that. The news was Cam Patterson — who, at the time, was the relatively new chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences — was a main cog in Fox Green as a songwriter and guitarist. In case anybody figured Fox Green as some sort of ephemeral, front porch noodle act, having drummer Dave Hoffpauir (of Ho-Hum and others) and producer Jason Weinheimer (of Fellowship Hall Sound) also on board put that to rest.
“Holy Souls,” Fox Green’s 2022 record, was a big leap forward. Deep, funny and soulful, “Holy Souls” was harder to pin down in a musical genre — it begins with a blast of horns and then settles into a rock groove — and is even shiftier in the lyric department. Conflicted characters emerge from some of the songs even as others are as straightforward and direct as a blunt text message.
“Light Over Darkness” feels more like a continuation of “Holy Souls” instead of a radically different musical attack. Make no mistake, Fox Green isn’t treading water with this new work. The band is clearly comfortable being uncomfortable, never settling into one predictable sound. Lead singer Wade Derden, who shares songwriting duties with Patterson, has a voice that pairs well with this approach. Never soaring but always connecting, there’s little distance between Derden’s conversational singing and the listener, making the “lost cause” protagonist who does laundry and stares in the mirror on “Better When in Love” that much more relatable.
Lyrics such as “One day I’ll get back to Jesus / And I won’t have to go too far” (“One Day I’ll Get Back To Jesus”) are as riddled with doubt as the dude trying to walk the straight and narrow in “Six Days Sober.” In this way, Fox Green is grown-up, guitar-heavy country music shot through with moments of keenly observed, heartfelt “adulting.” The chorus of “Drywall” goes, “What’s behind the drywall, baby?” and the answer, of course, is nothing good. You might not have guessed you needed a song about common construction materials, but you do.
“Light Over Darkness” is savvy enough to not take itself too seriously, namechecking local musical legend Jim Mize and whipping up an effervescent blast on “A Palace Full of Malice.” Fox Green is encouraging on many levels as smart, Southern guys offer up yet one more record to match. As someone might say, “bless their hearts.”