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LISTEN: Cory Branan, “Pocket of God”

Oct 4, 2022

Artist: Cory Branan
Hometown: Memphis, Tennessee
Song: “Pocket of God”
Album: When I Go I Ghost
Release Date: October 14, 2022
Label: Blue Ɖlan Records

In Their Words: “I tried to get as much of a story as I could in there, with someone in the hot seat. You donā€™t know who heā€™s singing to until the end, and itā€™s a story of what happened to someone he cared deeply about. That song began as a sweet line about somebody thinking he picked the pocket of God to have met someone, and I thought, ‘That’s too Hallmark,’ so I tried to balance it with a Raymond Carver sensibility, where definitions arenā€™t the same for everyone, where the narrator is untrustworthy. Iā€™m a big fan of Randy Newman, the songwriter king of untrustworthy narrators. And this song is an exception on the album in that I didnā€™t try to counteract the dark lyrics with brighter music. I stayed there, I painted an open void, then kept the music staring right there with me. The string arrangement helps with that — put the headphones on to hear the ear candy in those layered strings from Matt Combs! And thatā€™s Spencer Cullum (Steelism) on steel guitar holding drone notes through the whole thing.” — Cory Branan


Photo Credit: Jamie Harmon

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