Nathan Evans Fox Releases SAWZALL V. SURVEILLANCE Single via Free Dirt Records
The Nashville-based artist will tour this fall with American Aquarium, Noah Gundersen, and Mama's Broke.
Nathan Evans Fox has released his new single, 'Sawzall v. Surveillance (The Ballad of the Metal Man),' via Free Dirt Records. Written as communities across the country grapple with growing concerns over Flock cameras and the expanding reach of automated surveillance, the song turns anxieties about privacy, policing, and economic survival into what the release describes as a darkly funny outlaw tale for the modern surveillance state.
Fox began testing the song on social media, where it quickly caught fire with listeners. 'There was a lot in the potlikker that cooked up this song,' he explains. 'On the one hand, there's everything going wrong right now: the spread of state surveillance via Axon and Flock cameras, the rise of surveillance pricing, the feds putting anti-data center activists on watchlists, the Flock CEO calling organizations like Deflock 'terrorists,' the undemocratic ways data centers are imposed on communities, and the way these anti-social data centers are being built at breakneck speed to generate more capacity for AI slop and surveillance technology. On the other hand, there's all the good,' he continues. 'We recently passed the nation's strictest regulations on data centers in Nashville, kids and olds alike are having fun sabotaging Flock cameras, and thieves are realizing there are plenty of precious metals in data centers and surveillance cameras. There's an awful lot of nonsense that gets peddled as outlaw country - drunkenly throwing chairs off balconies and harassing rival artists - but this story is one where it's pretty unambiguous that the outlaws are the ones doing the right thing.'
Produced by Fox and Zachary Hamilton, 'Sawzall v. Surveillance' pairs Fox's country roots with a funky bass groove, banjo, and his characteristically sharp lyricism. Carson Childers plays bass, John Gray Zahurancik adds banjo, Lemuel Hayes plays drums, and Fox and Hamilton handle electric guitars, with Fox also on acoustic guitar and vocals. The song begins in a company town where making an honest living has become increasingly difficult. Enter the 'metal man,' a scrap dealer who offers another path to survival, no questions asked. What follows is part working-class parable, part outlaw caper, as Fox moves from copper theft and Robin Hood to GPS tracking, hidden license plates, gait-recognition technology, and the increasingly elaborate measures required to disappear from the watchful eyes of modern surveillance.
Beneath the song's humor is a harder question about who gets watched, who gets labeled a criminal, and who gets to profit without the same scrutiny. Fox invokes Robin Hood before declaring, 'Ain't a thing a rich man came by honest,' while biblical prophets Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, and John become part of the song's sly argument about wealth, morality, and deliverance. By the final chorus, Fox offers what the release calls a characteristically irreverent solution to an increasingly high-tech problem: 'There's a tool for everything you need / A sawzall that can get you free.'
'Sawzall v. Surveillance' follows Fox's twelve-song LP, Heirloom, released May 29 via Free Dirt Records. Across the album, he wrestles with inheritance in every sense of the word - family lineage, religious memory, working-class struggle, regional identity, and the question of what kind of world is left behind for the next generation.
Raised on four generations of family land in Glen Alpine, North Carolina, Fox grew up in a community shaped by mill closures, factory layoffs, and the slow erosion of working-class stability. His songwriting blends tenderness with clever turns of phrase and working-class critique, creating space for listeners who don't want to choose between their cultural roots and their hopes for a more just world.
Fox will embark on a September tour supporting American Aquarium, followed by October dates with Noah Gundersen, and a November and December run with Mama's Broke.
Tour Dates
September 3 - The Grey Eagle - Asheville, NC^
September 4 - Greenfield Lake Amphitheater - Wilmington, NC^
September 5 - Clementine Cafe - Harrisonburg, VA
September 6 - The Broadberry - Richmond, VA^
September 8 - Beachland Ballroom & Tavern - Cleveland, OH^
September 9 - The Magic Bag - Ferndale, MI^
September 10 - The Rave / Eagles Club - Milwaukee, WI^
September 12 - The Old Rock House - St. Louis, MO^
September 13 - Diamond Ballroom - Oklahoma City, OK^
October 15 - Eulogy - Asheville, NC^^
October 16 - Stanczyks - Durham, NC^^
October 17 - The Broadberry - Richmond, VA^^
October 18 - Metro Baltimore - Baltimore, MD^^
November 9 - Richmond Music Hall - Richmond, VA*
November 10 - The Evening Muse - Charlotte, NC*
November 11 - The Pinhook - Durham, NC*
November 14 - Pilot Light - Knoxville, TN*
November 15 - The Grey Eagle - Asheville, NC*
November 17 - The Monarch Music and Arts Community - Louisville, KY*
November 18 - The Southgate House Revival - Newport, KY*
December 2 - Heartwood Soundstage - Gainesville, FL*
December 4 - The Waterworks - St. Augustine, FL*
^ w/ American Aquarium
^^ w/ Noah Gundersen
*w/ Mama's Broke
