Christopher Wright - The Other Side (2025) Hi-Res

Texas musician Christopher Wright is releasing a new album The Other Side, recorded at Dripping Springs studio and featuring Cody Braun on fiddle to ground it nice and firmly in an earthy Texas soundscape. When you first hit play on the album, you immediately notice it’s suffused with the natural sound that comes from the Texas air and buffalo grass that Christopher grew up in. But there’s something more going on in the songwriting.

“Collin County Jail” is a striking opener – spacious acoustic guitar, strong electric guitar punctuations – but lyrically it contains a few more details than your average armchair songwriter should know: “making deals with the ink on my arm in the Collin County jail / this Celtic cross reminds me how I failed / a foxhole to save my ass, amen, but if you get me out of here good Lord I won’t go back again.” Dig a little deeper and find that Christopher did some time, more than once, and this song is autobiographical.

Things I Can’t Afford” launches with harmonica and you catch Cody Braun’s strings and a steady groove while Christopher belts out the relatable and confessional lyrics: “those nights I don’t remember I had to make it through them first / I only learn from doing, mistakes are at my core, but when it comes to whiskey and women, the things I can’t afford.” Soulful and honest. “Off to the Races” is more driving with slide guitar “I was mama’s little heathen, I was daddy’s wildcat. taking all the right turns, headed the wrong way.” Sometimes the way somebody grows up lands them in a heap of real trouble.

“Mountain Liar” is a dark number where Christopher sings of a man who confronts lies he has told and the way he’s living now with deceitful acts: “It’s easy to get hurt when it’s you against the dirt. You don’t have to tell me twice / I can see my lies behind your eyes.” “Drunk On Me” sets a swaggery blues rhythm and electric guitar solos with a song of the downside of drinking and the way things can all turn around. First you’re out all night: “then it all came down / it came crashing down / clock strikes 2 and I’m all out of crown, trying to find the words to say, can we stay out and play.” Only later, the tables turn and the story’s upside down, when his “girl’s got drunk on me.” Underneath, though, is a tale of dancing with alcohol and sobriety, an ode to yourself, and really to all of us in and out of that dance.

The Other Side is a collection of songs that do just what the title says: consider things from the other side with a fresh perspective – life outside jail, being broke, stepping outside of relationship drama, and the ability to reflect back on the things that lead you the wrong way as you strive to stay on the right side. But it’s completely void of judgmental tones – he’s simply speaking truth.