Song of the Day: Pony Boy - The Devil In Me

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Morning Show with John Richards, is "The Devil In Me" by Pony Boy from the 2014 The Devil In Me EP on Odd Man Out Records.

Pony Boy - The Devil In Me (MP3)

With a whiskey-worn voice that would make Tom Waits proud, the LA-via-Nashville artist Pony Boy's ragged country captures the gutter-laden spirit of both cities. Choosing her moniker after the protagonist of S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, Marchelle Bradanini began the Pony Boy project in 2010 after the breakup of her previous group, opting to channel the country musicians who she'd admired since her formative years. After playing shows and sporadically releasing material in LA for a few years, Bradanini moved to Nashville and recorded her new EP, The Devil In Me with producers Adam Landry and Justin Collins on an eight-track recording machine. The most fascinating aspect of "The Devil In Me" isn't its distorted stomp of a rhythm or its nebulous bass-and-organ pacing, but Bradanini's nonchalant, alluring delivery. The characters in the song live up to the title's implied lurking darkness, but in Bradanini's hands, they're detailed sketches of the less-than-glamorous, but no less colorful, scenes of Nashville after 2 a.m. An admitted fanatic of songwriters whose highly flawed characters drive their best songs, "The Devil In Me" shows that Bradanini can capture and tell similar tales with a balanced mixture of disdain and sympathy with a voice that's just as powerfully dichotomous.

Pony Boy doesn't have any shows announced at the moment, so keep an eye on her website and Facebook page for any announcements. For now, watch the video for "The Devil In Me" below.