Our obsession with Peningo Riders seems to grow with every listen. We featured their feel-good Americana debut, Duck That Jeep, and the wisdom-imbued sophomore single, Love Ain’t Everything, so naturally, we wanted to shine a light on their latest release, Pawn Shop Guitar.
Pawn Shop Guitar opens with an intricate and layered guitar soundscape with that classic Americana twang, staying true to the band’s identity. The opus expands with situational prose, brimful of poetic depth, as we are taken on a moving journey of human connection and the power of music.
The narrative of the track is incredibly strong, and super cinematic in its execution – a movie in its own right. In essence, Pawn Shop Guitar is a gritty Southern rock story about loss, resilience and redemption through the fictional tale of BJ Hawkins and his father, who is forced to sell his beloved guitar.
The story explores how hardship can break our spirit, but also how family, faith and specifically music can help rebuild it. In the tale, BJ tracks down the Pawn Shop Guitar and it becomes a symbol of hope and healing.
This metaphorical song feels very apt today, in a world where many of us are seeking connection and are experiencing trauma (wars, famines, genocides, oppression, poverty), it is music that gives us solace and escapism – whether it is listening, playing or writing about it.
That said, the inception of Pawn Shop Guitar came from Eddie’s real-life experience after Hurricane Michael devastated his family’s farm on the Florida-Alabama line in 2018, wiping out their cotton harvest. Years later, while driving through storm-damaged Marianna, Florida, he stopped at a pawn shop on Highway 90 and bought an Epiphone Les Paul guitar that felt like it carried its own story and was the genesis for the song.
Eddie says, “That storm snapped pine trees like toothpicks and took an entire season of our family’s blood and sweat with it. When I found that Epiphone Les Paul in that Marianna Pawn Shop years later, it felt like it had a story that needed to be told. Seeing that same shop get knocked down by a tornado and build itself right back up… that is exactly what this song is about.” He adds, “Pawn Shop Guitar is for anyone who has ever been knocked down, lost everything, and had to find their way back to life one chord at a time.”
Needless to say, we are in awe of Pawn Shop Guitar, especially the delivery switch-ups and the rapped segments that remind us of early Buck 65. The guitar performances are transcendental, inviting notions of cathartic euphoria before the finale breakdown of the track.
Bandmates Eddie Pellon and Russ Davis cite a plethora of influences, including Bob Marley, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Foreigner and Journey, which we can feel manifest, but there is no doubt that Peningo Riders are creating a sonic universe unto their own design.
We have added Pawn Shop Guitar to our New Music Spotlight playlist, and our TIMELESS playlist, whilst we continue to stream Duck That Jeep and Love Ain’t Everything and anticipate future releases from Peningo Riders!