Steve Carlson’s ‘Blood and Bones’: Worth the Wait
Steve Carlson’s Blood and Bones: Worth the Wait
I could have told you earlier, but then I would have had to kill you.
It is surreal that over the past twelve months, Steve Carlson fans from around the world have had the privilege of knowing (consciously or not) which songs would be included on his latest album, Blood and Bones. During every StageIt “practice session” Steve would preface songs with hints like, “Here’s a new chair-dancing song;” or “I just wrote this the other day. Tell me what you think.”
I used to chronicle almost every StageIt he did because I connected with the music. But when a third of the songs were unreleased material, I bottled up all those words lest I accidentally “spill the beans.”
At long last, Blood and Bones dropped on April 5, 2024. Freed from my super-secret-Saturday-session spoiler torment, I share with you now my pre-release musings and post-release review of this musical treasure.
January 2024 – 3 months ‘til album drop
January 13, 2024, was the first time I heard the song “Nothin’,” which is track 10 on Blood and Bones. Two things to love about this song are all of the pop culture references and this line:
“Sometimes even heroes sing the blues.”
With the wild way my brain makes connections, I see an image of Soldier Boy in my head (from the Kripke-led TV adaption of the graphic novels, The Boys) wearing a baseball jersey, drinking whiskey, feeling regret. Then again, nothin’ signals regret like a lonesome harmonica.
Other January chair-dancing tracks that made it to the album were “Wilderness” (track 9), “Feelin’ Alive” (track” 2), and “Beauty in These Bones” (track 1).
March 2024 — less than 30 days til album drop
My self-imposed gag order in anticipation of the new album is giving me heartburn. It’s not only me. There are more attendees at this month’s StageIt and the chat conversations are vibrant. New folks are discovering that Steve is a solo artist in his own right, releasing albums like Different Town and Groovin’ On the Inside in between projects like Radio Company, a collaborative effort with Jensen Ackles.
I’ve said this before: Steve fancies himself a modern-day pirate. At least, themes of that nature run through his songs. Today’s set list includes, in his words, “another new pirate song.” The chair-dancing beat of “Wilderness” sets the right backdrop for the lyric, “…nothing but forgiveness for this wilderness in my soul.”

April 204 – Blood and Bones, Start to Finish
If you are hearing these 11 songs for the first time since the April 5th release of Blood and Bones, it can be easy to fall into some of the steel guitar licks, or hypnotic organ themes. For the past year, I’ve been hearing these songs on either an acoustic or electric guitar. The rounding out of each song on the album has proven to be a delightfully new listening experience.
For example, “Sin I’ll Never Know,” which I’ve consistently misnamed because of the line, “one more silver dollar” (thank you, Allman Brothers Band), is frightfully delicate on the acoustic. The final production track adds a light snare drum, nasally steel guitar, and the barest hint of a bass. This instrumentation gives heft to the weightlessness of my original experience.
Here’s the play-by-play
Beauty in These Bones
Feelin’ Alive
Trouble in Your Blood
Down With It
Whirlwind
Killing Time
Sin I’ll Never Know
Into the Night
Wilderness
Nothin’
Midnight Move
What’s cool about the first track, “Beauty in These Bones,” is that it wasn’t on the original list for the album. Steve asked his fans for feedback since he’d crafted both song and verse in just one day. Our unanimous opinion was that he MUST include it.
“Man, you guys,” Steve opined. “My mixer’s gonna kill me for doing this to him.” (Fun fact: Steve’s mixer is also the drummer for Radio Company.)
“Feelin’ Alive” is the gospel-tent-revival bop I didn’t know I needed, thanks to an organ and a break where the only rhythm accompaniment is hand claps. Go ahead and sing along when you hear “Put a little love in my soul/ One more shot before I go.”
Musically, “Trouble in Your Blood” is very reminiscent of my favorite Radio Company song, “Quarter To.” The similarities aren’t surprising, they are comforting.
Who knew Steve could channel Prince? Not having heard “Down With It” before, I was thrown by how easily I mashed parts of “Kiss” into this track. And the trombone? There are yummy New Orleans vibes here.
“Whirlwind” is anything but, and a testament to the “there’s no accounting for taste” concept. (In the recent StageIt, several fans marked it as their favorite song on the album.)
“Killing Time” is a love song full of yearning — no room for Clint Black melancholy here. And this is what caught my attention: if the person in “Killing Time” is the same one in “Sin I’ll Never Know”, there’s a story there. The guy in “Killing Time” doesn’t mind waiting as long as it takes for the girl he wants, and yet in the next song, “on my own once again,” it appears he encounters someone else. Throughout “Sin,” the rhyming phrases “trading dances,” “exchanging glances,” and “takin’ chances,” feel like he is building up to a relationship, only to balk at the last minute.
I haven’t worked it all out yet, but I’m sure there’s a connection between those two tracks stronger than being on the same album.
The first 50 seconds of “Into the Night” start off with an acoustic guitar riff that blends dreamily into some synthesizer or maybe pedal steel guitar. Then Steve’s voice comes in, all soothing and melodious. It’s not my favorite on the album, but it does trigger some ASMR1 sensations.
Since I mentioned “Wilderness” and “Nothin’” earlier, that just leaves the final track: “Midnight Move.” I’m guessing on the instrumentation here, but it sounds like there is an old Roland electric piano doing some of the heavy lifting. (Steve, you’ll have to let me know if I’m right!) It works well for the sultry rhythm and a swaying, repetitive chorus of “Fall back into you baby.”
It’s actually a great way to end the album and the perfect lead-in to start the whole album again. Set your playlist on repeat.
What are your reactions to Blood and Bones? Please share in the comments below!
Tune into Christine’s album of Music Reviews on Steve Carlson and Radio Company’s concerts, records and fan jams!
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- ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response; a term used to describe a tingling, static-like, or goosebumps sensation in response to specific triggering audio or visual stimuli. – https://www.nebraskamed.com/neurological-care/asmr-videos-are-exploding-online-but-what-is-asmr-and-does-it-work
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