‘You might not know what Virginia looks like,” says Oliver Anthony to a sold-out crowd in Glasgow. “But I’m writing about home, and it’s not much different from here.” Last year the ascendant country star, real name Christopher Lunsford, became one of the few unsigned artists to reach No 1 in the US, with Rich Men North of Richmond. An everyman screed against political elites, the song is quintessentially populist: it criticises both the wealthy and welfare recipients, and has been co-opted by Republicans, to Lunsford’s dismay. Instead of revealing the politics of Lunsford – who insists he is nonpartisan – the song’s reception reveals more about the contemporary hunger to project on to popular art and mould it into a symbol.
Yet it’s easy to see why Lunsford is an ideal blank canvas. He lives off-grid in Virginia, has scant experience of playing live, and after reading a Bible verse from his phone mid-set, declares that “all the songs you hear on Spotify were recorded on this”. His songs are rootsy and muscular, with the live addition of double bass and acoustic guitar warming up the twang of his resonator guitar. Vocally he’s the real deal, his clear tone lending conviction to the plaintive Cobwebs and Cocaine and reluctant drinking song I’ve Got to Get Sober.
The reception is consistently rapturous, but the closing half hour is curious in light of Lunsford’s avowed resentment of politics. Doggonnit takes a soft swipe at Republicans and Democrats alike, but also references a bizarre conspiracy about governments forcing populations to eat bugs to prevent climate change – which could be ambiguous, if Lunsford didn’t then rant against “every environmentally friendly excuse” to hurt working American people. Before playing Rich Men … he quips that Joe Biden “prefers them under eighteen”. Lunsford may balk at the capital-P Political, but there’s no question that these remarks are either straightforward dogwhistles, or could be co-opted as such by the worst of humanity. It’s a shame, as he evidently has talent and passion, but things are rarely that simple in 2024.
