Artist: Kelley McRae
Hometown: Austin, TX
Song: “Hard Night”
Album: The Wayside
Release Date: April 7
In Their Words: "The opening lines of 'Hard Night' are adapted from Christian Wiman's poem '2047 Grace Street.' I was reading that poem while we were staying by the Frio River in Texas, and that initial melody was written there, but the song remained unfinished for a while. Fortunately, I started re-reading one of my all-time favorite books, Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. I thought there was such a lovely connection between Wiman's words and the life of John Ames (the main character in Gilead) and so the rest of the song came easily, inspired by Robinson's stunning novel." — Kelley McRae
Photo credit: Brandon Dickerson