Willa Mae’s “Yeah, Right” Captures Her Complicated Feelings About the South
Living in Rocky Top can feel a little rocky. There’s a very specific angst that comes with feeling out of place within your hometown, and no one has captured it better than Tennessean rocker Willa Mae in her new track “Yeah, Right.” The song is an outlet for complex feelings about living in the South, where the lines blur between Southern hospitality and bigotry, tradition and antiquated values, and having love for your community while also feeling restricted by its expectations.
Willa Mae’s grungy, shoegaze rock-with-a-twang has a unique Southern Gothic edge perfect for tackling this complicated relationship with Southern culture. The track opens with distorted organ notes that allude to church music and the religious pressure around “proper” behavior. Electric guitar immediately scrapes in and scuffs the proverbial church shoes, and Willa Mae’s sardonic crooning sets the scene: “You hate America, you hate rednecks, you hate a lot of things / Hey, weren’t you raised by some? / Weren’t you well-fed and loved? / I know how you pronounce your E’s.”
Moody, reverb-y electric guitar strumming later breaks into a screeching solo that feels like screaming out frustration. The tension between Willa Mae’s soft vocal delivery and roaring rhythms reflects the inner conflict — it’s not always a simple choice between staying in your hometown or moving somewhere you feel free to embrace your identity and autonomy. As Willa Mae asked in her live intro to the song, “If all the baddies leave, who’s going to stay and make the South a better place?”
Willa Mae is fresh off of playing the Rocknite x Outeroo stage at Bonnaroo this past June (a major dream come true for any Tennessean musician) and opening for Cage the Elephant at another Rocknite event at JBJ’s Nashville. Keep tabs on Willa Mae’s website for future shows, and give “Yeah, Right” a gander below.
