Outlaw in Your Mind
Songwriters are the eyes of the world and Baltimore songwriter Caleb Stine’s eyes are better than most. Armed with a storyteller’s inquisitiveness and a restless independent spirit, Stine is songwriter of uncompromising heft, he can spin tales that are joyful expressions, songs that are serious meditations on life, and write tunes that are all of that. As he says, “I like to produce songs that breathe and spit, and sometimes leave fresh wildflowers on your doorstep.”
Outlaw in Your Mind, Stine’s twelfth album is a collection of a dozen songs reflecting the world around us. Sounding like the love child of Townes Van Zandt and Ola Belle Reed who was raised on the road by Woody Gutherie, Stine crafts stories of life and trouble and trouble and good times we can all relate to. Outlaw in Your Mind is a journey through that world around us. From the album opening “Gone,” a introspective dirge of a simple fishing trip that seeks to find bigger answers, to tales of a musician’s life on ‘Saturday to Friday” with its catchy-groove that will have you singing along by the second verse, to the simple dreamy strums of “One Human Lifetime,” and the fuzzed out feel of “I Don’t Care No More,” Stine is unafraid to tell it like it is. Outlaw in Your Mind is straightforward and honest. When he sings of finding your own path and the ability to live your life your way in “Outlaw” he subtly echoes Kris Kristofferson’s statement of purpose from “Me & Bobby McGhee,” “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Stines uses words like no other, crafting lines and lyrics that twist and turn, dancing in one’s mind as they slowly reveal their inner meaning. How many songwriters can insert the word meritocracy into their lyrics and make it singable as Stine does on the album closing “Human Beings?”
Stine’s timeless style of songwriting evokes images of a classic generation of outlaw-country songwriters like Waylon Jennings, Steve Earle, and Willie Nelson. Each song is a glimpse into the heart and soul of America. Like all of Stine’s albums, Outlaw in Your Mind is a deeply personal look at the life around him, about relationships, and hardworking, genuine people, deftly delivered with a storyteller’s eye and troubadour’s heart.
