Growing up in Southlake, Texas — an affluent suburb of the Dallas and Fort Worth areas — Lou Ridley always felt like an outsider. Now, as an "anti-country" country singer based out of Nashville, she finds freedom in honest songwriting while still bucking many of her chosen genre's tropes.
The pandemic has been a productive time for Ridley: She spent quarantine perfecting a batch of songs that would eventually become her newest release, Angel/Outlaw, deepening her commitment to authenticity and vulnerability in each of the project's tracks.
Nowhere is that vulnerability more apparent than in "Blind Eye," an unflinching examination of a doomed relationship, and a laundry list of all the reasons why things just won't work out. In its lyrics, Ridley faults her partner for never treating her the way she deserves, but saves her harshest criticism for herself: "I turned a blind eye," she plaintively sings in the chorus.
In this episode of Press Play at Home, Ridley gives the song the drama it deserves, singing seated on a plush red sofa, a bed of red flowers at her feet. Her voice takes center stage, accompanied only by soft acoustic guitar and sparse backing vocals.
By the end of the performance, Ridley's heartache has become a call to action, rousing herself to leave a relationship that will never give her what she needs. It's an autobiographical song, but it's also a lens into Ridley's commitment to the truth: If she has to decide between being well-liked and being authentic, the singer's choice is clear.
Check out Ridley's Press Play At Home episode above, and catch new performances from the series every Thursday.
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