Artist: Arkansauce
Hometown: Fayetteville, Arkansas
Song: “My Home in Arkansas”
Album: OK to Wonder
Release Date: April 21, 2023
In Their Words: “‘My Home in Arkansas’ is an up-tempo bluegrass number about the lives we live when we hit the road and the tolls we pay to live the traveling musician lifestyle. Maybe it’s because it’s the two things we’ve done the most for the last several years, but I see a lot of parallels between the traveling life and a good jam. Both of them are more fun when there is a sense of adventure and a feeling that you are entering into new terrain, and they both will inevitably contain a breakdown at some point.
“As we were developing this batch of new tunes, several of them became studies on new rhythms and complex instrumental melodies with harmonized lines; things that really stretch our technique. It also became evident that we didn’t have many songs that were delivered in a classic Monroe-inspired bluegrass form, so that was intentionally front and center as I wrote the tune. I knew I wanted an open section that would give us somewhere to take it in our live shows, so we put together our exit strategy from the jam and hit the studio before things coagulated.” — Tom Andersen, Arkansauce
Photo Credit: Phil Clarkin