In the depths of the River Arts District in Asheville, North Carolina, a large tour bus is parked outside the tiny Grey Eagle where the Red Clay Strays are set to play a sold-out show that evening. The band’s coach is so tall that it all but obscures the venue behind it from street view — a visual metaphor for the Mobile, Alabama, group’s rapidly upward trajectory.
That was in October 2023. Fast forward to now, and the Red Clay Strays have just been forced to move their next Asheville concert, slated for April 28, from the 1,050-capacity Orange Peel to the outdoor stage Rabbit Rabbit, cap. 4,200. That too sold out.
Guitarist Drew Nix is nonplussed. “All I see are small goals we’re trying to achieve from here to wherever we’re trying to get to,” he tells Rolling Stone . “It’s never, ‘make it big.’”
Despite Nix’s protestation, that’s exactly where the band finds itself.
Bursting out of the red dirt clay of their home state that gives the Red Clay Strays their name, the band is the musical manifestation of the push and pull between salvation and redemption. Their sound is Delta blues, gritty honky-tonk, and Sun Records rockabilly, shot through with a palpable darkness — call the result “gothic country.” Lead singer Brandon Coleman’s fire and brimstone vocals tie it all together, and hint at the undercurrent of faith that runs through the band.