Nathan Bryce and Loaded Dice have released “Gone Since Texas” and the setup alone grabbed me. An email between Bryce and Crockett. A dragonfly pin. A Texas show where someone was already leaving before they actually left. That’s the real story here, and the song doesn’t waste energy pretending it’s anything bigger or more dramatic than what it is. One person still in the moment while the other is already gone. That disconnect, that awful asymmetry of heartbreak, is what makes this track work.

Crockett wrote the lyrics on a flight, and you can feel that immediacy in every line. She nailed how it actually feels when you realize the ending started way before either person said it out loud. “I’m in misery, while she’s in Missouri” hits exactly right because it’s specific and plain and true. No flourish needed.

The music lets the story breathe. Bryce’s vocals have this restrained quality that matters more than anything showy would. The guitar work pulls from blues and Southern rock but never overstates the moment. It’s the kind of arrangement that trusts the song to land, and it does. Everything feels earned because nothing is forced.

After spending years on high-energy blues-driven material, Bryce and Loaded Dice have clearly found something deeper in their writing. They’re not abandoning what made their live shows work, but they’re bringing real emotional weight to it now. “Gone Since Texas” proves they can do both at once. It’s a song that matters because it came from somewhere true, and they didn’t mess it up by trying too hard.

Listen to it in full here.