One of the first records I wrote about on this blog was Alive and Dying Fast, the debut full-length album from West Virginia’s Tucker Riggleman & The Cheap Dates, which ended up being one of my favorite albums of 2021. Riggleman has been playing in bands around Appalachia for over a decade now–he led the grunge-rock power trio Bishops, as well as playing in Prison Book Club along with John R. Miller and William Matheny, and The Demon Beat along with Rozwell Kid’s Jordan Hudkins. Alive and Dying Fast was Tucker Riggleman’s first major solo statement, and it’s an excellent, fully-realized display of his experience-gained skill as a songwriter.
The Cheap Dates (Riggleman, along with bassist Mason Fanning and drummer M Tivis Clark) have been putting the finishing touches on their sophomore album, due out in early 2024 on WarHen Records (Dogwood Tales, Phil Cook, The Dexateens). We’ve already heard one song slated to appear on the as-of-yet untitled new album, “Virtue”, a great tune that I wrote about back in April. Riggleman and his band are now back with the second single from their next record, “Queen of Diamonds”, a song that expands the upcoming album’s scope beyond the country-rocking “Virtue” but hangs together with the previous single thanks to Riggleman’s lyrics.
The Cheap Dates are no strangers to rootsy rock music, but “Queen of Diamonds” hews closer to straight-up country than their typical fare, both in its instrumental and in Riggleman’s writing. The song’s music heavily features organ by guest player Lee Carroll (longtime keyboard player for The Judds), while Fanning and Clark’s rhythm section settles into a simple trot across the song’s three minutes, allowing for Carroll’s showy playing and Riggleman’s singing to take the main stage.
The lyrics of “Queen of Diamonds” are country music at its best as well, conveying deep longing economically with some well-put metaphors. “She’s the queen of diamonds, and I’m just another broken heart,” begins Riggleman, and later, “She’s a blooming lily, and I’m just an old sticker bush”. Although Riggleman’s closing conclusion is “I guess I was barking up the wrong tree,” with an audible shrug, that doesn’t take any of the sting out of the questions Riggleman asks in the refrain. Maybe he’s being rhetorical when he asks “How do you find something so pure?”, but I’m sure he’d listen if you had any leads.
The Cheap Dates’ M Tivis Clark created the single’s artwork, and he’s also behind the song’s video, which you can view below. The visuals are quite striking, as it takes the song’s title as literally as possible (if playing card-featuring content is your thing, the “Queen of Diamonds” video has it in spades. They’re all decked out in red, white, and black. They aced it.)
The Cheap Dates celebrate their new single with a couple of shows in the Upland South–catch them on September 2nd in Lexington, and on the 3rd in Nashville. They’re playing Clientele Art Studio in Wheeling, West Virginia on October 13th as well.
Rosy Overdrive 