The Land League Is Debuting Strong

A fresh take on country, without compromising the genre.

Critical Country
4 min readMar 8, 2022

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Cover for The Land League’s first official single, “Stoned And Reckless” out on March 25th, 2022. (Provided by The Land League)

The Canadian country music scene has been on fire for the past few years, producing acts like The Dead South, and Colter Wall. I’ve always been intrigued by the strong scene from up north, and like to check out any new artists coming from the region, as they often have a unique story to tell. This was no different with The Land League.

When brothers, Jesse and Ciaran Scanlon (A.K.A. The Land League) offered me a link to check out their official debut single “Stoned And Reckless” before its release, I was excited to give it a listen.

Jesse and Ciaran just recently started making music, when they found themselves bored, and missing the usual live music scene in the initial Covid-19 lockdown of early 2020. They decided to just make their own music.

Growing up, they shared a love of country and Irish music. I’m a sucker for both genres as well, and the influence Ireland had on early bluegrass is well known at this point, so the combination isn’t far fetched.

The Land League says their goal in making music, is to make good ol’ country, while also giving it a unique new feel. I love this idea, and so many people attempt this, but get it totally wrong.

In this age of music, genres are separated by very thin lines, and often times when an artist tries to innovate in one genre, they just end up in another genre without adding anything.

I believe The Land League is genuinely putting a spin on country, without straying too far from what makes it so iconic.

“Stoned And Reckless” shows off this interesting genre bending style exquisitely.

The track opens with a great little piano riff, and then the beautiful wailing steel guitar kicks in and you’re ready to raise hell. There’s also a great little instrumental break at the end.

The piano and steel really are the highlights of the song. The way the piano matches the vocal melody in the chorus, forces you to bob your head along and is one of the biggest factors in the immense catchiness of this tune.

Lyrically, The Land League says; “‘Stoned And Reckless’ sets out to capture the…

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Critical Country

I’m Ethan, and this is my (mostly) country music blog: Critical Country | Top Writer in Country Music and Music | Contact me at ethansilvers@yahoo.com