Dogs bury their bones as a safe hiding place. It’s a protective instinct that canines have for savoring their loot, as opposed to the human instinct to hide skeletons in a closet as an emotional defense. On The Pink Stones‘ new slow-burning single “Shiny Bone,” the Georgia-based group marries these two concepts using the protective instinct as a metaphor for putting away darker emotions. “Got taught like a dog / And I’m not quite done fetchin’,” sings Hunter Pinkston at the song’s end. With the sparse instrumentation complementing its grave tone, “Shiny Bone” portrays the narrator as a dog not only eager to fetch old bones, but secure them as well.
“Shiny Bone” is a pensive song about losing a sense of home. Pinkston explains that the track is “a metaphorical ballad.” He continues, “I wrote it in my first apartment in Athens. I was living alone and feeling pretty lonely—that ‘not a lot of friends in a new town’ sorta feeling that comes from moving away from home and losing people in the transition. We had a pretty brutal storm hit that flooded my place and knocked a tree down not too far from my car. I ended up having to spend the night at a coworkers house and wrote this song shortly after, when my floor was dry. It’s about ‘killing’ those feelings and memories that make you feel alone or lonely, while still being able to dig them back up when need be.”
If you were unaware of the metaphor, the final verse might seem like a graphic turn. “I’ll bury you where no one can find,” Pinkston sings soberly. “I’ll dig you up when it’s your time / And maybe then my bone can shine,” he concludes. Pedal steel and doughty guitars fade in the background as The Pink Stones walk away from the hidden burial.
Their debut album Introducing…The Pink Stones is out April 9 via Normaltown Records. Pre-order here.
