In today’s review, we will be featuring an artist that has had a lot of press lately on our website named Toby S. Reeves. He is the originator of a genre named ‘Hollerstep’, a rhythm-shifting Appalachian fusion genre that fuses elements of bluegrass instrument with modern percussive frameworks. He is a lifelong songwriter and genre-blender, tracing his musical DNA to his roots in Kentucky and Indiana. To add on to his credibility, his family also performed bluegrass within these locations in the 1950s.
Over the past few years, he has honed in on his craft carving out a distinctive lane that bridges storytelling, heritage and innovation, through the blending of sounds from the banjo and mandolin with the pulse of electronic music and dynamics of rock music.
In this instance, he aims to portray his artistry with his newest single titled ‘Back to the Hollerstep’, a song that presents itself as a love letter and a manifesto. It is a playful journey through the musical highways of America, always winding home to the mountains. Each verse is intended to excite the listener, experimenting with different genres such as country, rock, rap and disco, before rediscovering the rooted sound that makes the track feel the most authentic. The instrumentation mirrors the narrative with steel guitars that shimmer, amps that roar, with a mandolin cutting through a trap-style beat, and the porch-stomp rhythm ultimately taking command.
This track expands the horizon of the Hollerstep genre compared to previous releases, showing how easily modern music can lose its soul when it drifts too far from its origins, and how powerfully it snaps back when tradition calls. Reeves’ production uses tempo and texture shifts to signal each genre detour, ultimately stringing them together with a unifying motif.
The song starts off with bang and a thud, accompanied with an introductory motif. It has an anthemic-feel, that a lot people will definitely resonate with. It has a chord progression that gives you the feel of ‘anticipatory’ emotion, building up thematically for the song to eventually ‘explode’ with its chorus- giving it the classic feel of a song for many people to sing along to. I can hear the prominence of the strings and native instruments throughout the track, and they’re the starring grace of the entire track. As much as this is a fusion track, I think the historical instruments have a presence that goes beyond commercialism.
Speaking of commercialism, I think this is a track that will perform well within the American commercial spaces, as it has a lot of qualities that would resonate with a lot of people. They can stomp along, they can sing along, and they can definitely feel their heritage represented within this track. It’s exciting, with a lot of positive musical motifs littered, and I definitely enjoy the motivic variation provided by the improvs within the track. It’s definitely a track for people to lose themselves in and simply enjoy, with a high amount of danceability.
It’s also well-mastered, so kudos to Toby S. Reeves on this. I don’t doubt this track has human output in it, but I do have to disclose that Toby should probably also credit the female singer within this track- and if it is AI, to explicitly disclose it, because in a previous review I have noted that he has credited himself and his alter ego as two separate people in the list of credits, compromising the integrity of the validity of a potential credits list. I’m not stating this to insult the artist, platforms like YouTube now require uploaders to disclose if the content is semi-AI generated and I would say If the female vocals were AI generated, this song would be an example of how to fuse AI with motivic variation, making it actually a ‘model’ song that should be looked up to. If not, then disregard this paragraph. Once again, I’m not trying to insult the artist, we live in 2025 and the cover art is generated by ChatGPT.
All in all, a track with a lot of American commercial appeal.
SCORE / Good – ‘Back to the Hollerstep’ is an interesting and proficient track exploring the evolution of the Hollerstep genre. It has a lot of improv from traditional instruments, providing it with a decent amount of motivic variation, while maintaining a cohesive narrative that would appeal to the masses very strongly.
[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]
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