Music Love: "Lonesome Rider" by The Beth Edges

A few weeks ago, I was at the Radical Reels Film Tour, an offshoot of the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival. Both are super cool film tours that showcase shorts (anywhere from 2 to 30ish minutes) about outdoor sports such as rock climbing, skiing, and kayaking. Radical Reels focuses on the more “extreme” end of these sports. Both festivals are a lot of fun. If you get a chance, you should check them out! The Banff tour goes all over the world; Radical Reels has events in Canada, the USA, and Australia.

At any rate, it was at the tour, during one of these films, that I first heard The Beth Edges. I can’t tell you what song it was, or what movie it was in (I’m guessing it was the one about the crazy Austrian guys who put their BMX-type bikes on skis to ride them down mountains, doing tricks) and they weren’t even my favorite of the two bands whose names I wrote down. About a week later, I remembered that I’d written down these bands (the other was FMLYBND) and decided to look them up on iTunes.

A listen to FMLYBND left me, frankly, puzzled as to why they’d intrigued me in the first place. Then I listened to The Beth Edges and immediately fell in love. I loved them so much, in fact, that it was difficult to choose just one song to download. (If I let myself, I would spend hundreds of dollars on music, so I try to keep it in check.) The song I chose is the one above.

I don’t know about you, but I never would have guessed that this young band hails from Austria. All of their songs are in English, and to me they have a very British sound, which is probably why I like them so much. In fact, they remind me of early Kooks, and I love early Kooks (I like later Kooks too, but reserve most of my love for the early years). There’s something about the quality of singer Tobias Gruenzweil’s voice that’s often reminiscent of the Kooks’ Luke Pritchard. The music has a similar sound too.

I love pretty much every about this band and this particular song: their sound, and Grunzweil’s voice, and their lyrics. What drew me to this song was the pleading refrain, “Just wanted you to know that I’ll be trying to change for the better.” It hits very close to home for me, as I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I can do to be a better person. As much as I love this song, however, I hate the video, so much so that I almost decided to put up an unofficial video instead. Eventually, I decided that I want you to hear the studio version. Maybe just close your eyes and listen to it instead of watching.

A day or two after I downloaded “Lonesome Rider,” my husband spontaneously gave me an iTunes gift card. That same night, I bought both Beth Edges albums. They’re phenomenal. Can’t recommend them enough. If, for some reason, you don’t like “Lonesome Rider,” check out “Made-Up Stories,” “Older Than Me,” and “Follow Your Feet.” Just don’t miss out on this band!