Out Now: Johnny Dango's 'Dear Everybody, I Love You'

Austin, TX-based psych/Americana artist Johnny Dango has released his highly anticipated new LP, Dear Everybody, I Love You. Dango's music is a confluence of country and rock, with a hefty sense of self-satire covering all of tornado alley, from the folky roots of Stillwater to the gospel soul of Tulsa. 

On his new album Dear Everybody, I Love You, he battles with the concept of time, and questions his efficacy as a songwriter. He asks out loud whether playing barroom rock is the sole benefit he's meant to provide, or if this is just another vanity project keeping the news cycle of elections and reality television alive. He's made sure to examine himself with as much humor as he has the world around him.  

Dango tells stories like a philosopher asking life's important questions. His songs are country western koans, meditative riddles that may pave the way to enlightenment, though they have no right answer....even Dango is just now coming to understand what a couple of the songs are about. "Laughing Larry's Longer Lament" begins with electric slide guitar, and emotive piano chords. Johnny sings "Ain't nothing much new happening under the sun / It's just a life we all live til we're done". It was written five years ago, and came to Johnny all at once on his porch over morning coffee, after one of his last visits with his 101 year old grandmother. "I thought it was terrible that she'd lived so long and then in the end got cancer," he says, now realizing the song was a cathartic release, a helplessness blues about the futility we've all met with.  At six minutes long the song is so relatable you never want it to end. Check out the song, a personal favorite, above.

Dear Everybody, I Love You is out now.