Garrett T. Capps & NASA Country - People Are Beautiful (2022) Hi-Res

Garrett T. Capps and his band NASA Country blend synth and twangy guitar with lyrics about outer space and social unrest on their latest album, People Are Beautiful.

And now for something a bit off the beaten path, San Antonio’s resident throwback country weirdo freak, Garrett T. Capps, has tapped into country music’s underutilized cosmic influences in a collaboration with NASA Country, and created an immersive experience titled under the name People are Beautiful. Don’t worry, bong rips and psychoactive substances aren’t entirely necessary to unlock the entertainment value of this work. If they nonetheless enhance it, that is for you to decide.

The country music of Garrett T. Capps has always been pretty far out, but the point of this project is to purposely trek towards the outer limits of country. Mixing psychedelia with country is nothing new. In fact, it’s a long-established influence in the genre. From The Byrds and The Grateful Dead early on, to more recent landmark releases like Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, and Marty Stuart’s Way Out West, it’s a wonder why more artists don’t work in these modes, especially when the results are often quite positive.

Yes, get ready for beeps and pulses of electronic technology interwoven with twangy lead guitar underpinned by surf influences. But the results are something still more cousin to country or classic rock than EDM. Some of the sounds may be created from resistors and capacitors, but they’re still vintage in the sense that they’re from yesterday and inspired by bands like Krafwerk, and have withstood the test of time as eternally relevant, just like many of country’s vintage tones.

If you get to over-analyzing this album though, you’re missing the point, which is to zone out, tune in, and let the waves of music and the messages born on the them shepherd you away from the cold hard mundanity of modern life to a more imaginative landscape full of the wisdom of inner consciousness. People Are Beautiful may employ more old-school sounding music, but it was written for today when it feels like the edges of society are beginning to fray, when you don’t know who or what to trust, and you’re not exactly confident on where this world is headed.