B-Side Guys

In “Detour,” Jay Strauss maps the geography of memory with the precision of a cartographer and the soul of a beat poet. The track, pulled from his debut album Based on a True Story, transforms the Hudson Valley’s arterial highways and architectural ghosts into a meditation on paths not taken.

Strauss’s speak-sing delivery, reminiscent of latter-day post-punk troubadours but entirely his own, gives weight to every carefully chosen syllable. His “rough-edged tenor” proves the perfect vehicle for lines like “Redbrick mill buildings, Newburgh by the bridge / Pictures, unknown faces, lives I haven’t lived” – observations that feel simultaneously personal and universal in their snapshot clarity.

The production, helmed by Andy Stack at Buffalo Stack Productions in Beacon, NY, creates a sonic landscape as detailed as the physical one Strauss describes. Sean Ward’s “audio alchemy” particularly shines here, transforming traditional indie rock frameworks into something more mercurial. The guitar work weaves through the composition like Route 91 through Western Massachusetts, purposeful yet somehow dreamlike.

There’s a masterful economy to Strauss’s writing that reveals his literary foundations without becoming precious about them. The Robert Hunter influence surfaces not in imitation but in how Strauss threads imagery through narrative, particularly in verses like “One face in a cloudscape / Eyes-closed in a dream / Thinking about the storms below / And the days between.” Each line serves multiple purposes, advancing both story and mood.

The song’s structural centerpiece – “And in the end the shutter stops / Light pours in, the golden hour shot” – captures the essence of what makes “Detour” so compelling. It’s a moment frozen in time, yet somehow still in motion, much like the fifty cars and southbound graffiti train that populate the song’s landscape.

Lee Falco’s drums provide an essential foundation, keeping the wandering narrative grounded while allowing space for the more experimental elements to flourish. The interplay between rhythm section and Ward’s processed guitar creates a tension that mirrors the song’s central theme of lives lived and unlived.

“Purple Paisley President / Plays bass near Pancho’s bodega” arrives like a surreal street scene from a Kerouac novel, before dissolving into a melodic “La-la-la” refrain that feels less like an outro and more like a surrender to the song’s dreamlike pull. The final repetition of “Lives I haven’t lived” lands with the weight of both regret and acceptance.

This is songwriting that rewards close attention while remaining immediately accessible – a difficult balance that Strauss strikes with remarkable assurance for a debut release. “Detour” stands as evidence that sometimes the most interesting destinations lie beyond the expected route.