Tag: Americana

LISTEN: Korby Lenker, “All in My Head”

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Artist: Korby Lenker
Hometown: East Nashville
Song: “All in My Head”
Album: Man in the Maroon
Release Date: May 21, 2021
Label: Grind Ethos

In Their Words: “‘All in My Head’ is the first track on my 8th studio album, Man in the Maroon. It’s about a depressed person who entertains the idea that maybe there’s a different perspective out there. I wrote it last spring over several nights while jogging through my neighborhood in East Nashville. The outings happened to coincide with the Nashville 8 o’clock howl, a typically quirky East Nash neo-tradition where for the first several months of the pandemic, people would stand out on their porch every night at 8 and just go crazy. I heard the howling, in the distance mostly, before I ever knew what it was, and after a few nights, I started joining in. Just yelling at the top of my lungs. Purging that threatening despair that seemed to be everywhere, inside and out. Later, when I was recording the song, I posted on social media, asking if anyone knew who started it. In no time I was sitting over coffee with the founder herself. She put me in touch with some of the howlers… if you listen closely, after the bridge you can hear a few of the more choice examples of the East Nashville 8 o’clock howl.” — Korby Lenker

https://soundcloud.com/user-747568408/all-in-my-head/s-Hjv7RcuUYYF?in=user-747568408/sets/man-in-the-maroon//s-0dkClBhP9E3

Photo credit: David McClister

We’re Looking Back (and Forward ) With Mandolin Orange’s Music at the Mansion

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At the one-year mark of the pandemic drastically changing our daily lives, let’s take a minute to reflect. Sure, we’ve seen more livestreamed content than we ever cared to see, we’ve ordered more takeout than we deem reasonable, and we’ve had far fewer haircuts than we’d like to admit in the last 12 months. Live music has all but disappeared from our lives. Although the brilliant artists we love have found creative ways to connect with their audiences, fans haven’t been able to regularly engage in a person-to-person musical experience in some time. As we reflect on all these things that have come to pass, it is this author’s earnest and sincere hope that we also look forward.

The live music experience is gradually coming back, too, and to remind us of the beauty of an intimate acoustic performance, we’ve dug up this video from Mandolin Orange’s show for the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Now that spring is here, let the joys of new beginnings fill your home by watching this full set and remembering what it’s like to crowd into a room to hear beautiful music, seeing no mask and fearing no illness. As tumultuous as the last year was, let us remember, celebrate, and continue pressing on, making preparations for the possibility of having intimate musical experiences like this once again in 2021. Watch the lovely concert below.

Photo credit: Kendall Bailey

WATCH: Johnny Chops, “Trouble with the Truth”

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Artist: Johnny Chops
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “Trouble with the Truth”
Release Date: April 2, 2021 (Single)
Album: Yours, Mine and the Truth EP
Label: Johnny Chops Music

In Their Words: “One September morning in 2019, I got up early, before the dogs or my wife were awake, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down in my writing room. This song fell out of the sky into my lap and was basically written in about an hour. It’s a departure from most of my material and some of the ‘songwriting rules’ I usually stick with. It isn’t a sing-along or an anthem, but more of a lament. I think of it as a sad little poem. Aside from my vocals and acoustic guitar, the rest of the track is producer and multi-instrumentalist David Abeyta. He put a lovely finish and a beautiful solo on this song.

“While I was writing the video treatment, I wanted to lean in to that lonely feeling by filming in some dark and bleak locations. I came across these dramatic spaces by researching abandoned buildings on YouTube and was lucky enough to contact the property owners through the Mineral Wells Chamber of Commerce and get their permission to film. The video wouldn’t have the same visual depth or resonance without their assistance and patience. I also have to give some extra credit to the camera expertise of my DP, Brian Monnone (Big Flavor Films) for helping to capture the atmosphere of the song, as well as braving some structurally questionable locations. Creating this story has been an exciting exploration into videography, film and screenwriting. I have been telling tales through song for almost 20 years, so it’s an exciting next chapter that I hope to pursue more in the future.” — Johnny Chops

Photo credit: Brandon Aguilar

WATCH: Mallory Johnson & Twin Kennedy, “Wise Woman”

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Artist: Mallory Johnson & Twin Kennedy
Hometown: Conception Bay South, Newfoundland & Labrador and Powell River, BC
Song: “Wise Woman”

In Their Words: “Immediately after we finished writing ‘Wise Woman’, we could visualize the music video. Although we knew it would be ambitious, we believed it was important to feature as many women’s stories as we could in three and a half minutes. We also wanted to feature leaders who have inspired us, raised us, and helped shape us into the women we are today. Our mothers are in the video, our sisters, our nieces, our friends, our mentors. This video is not about Mallory Johnson and Twin Kennedy in the spotlight singing a pretty song. It’s about the message, the conversation and the women.” — Mallory Johnson & Twin Kennedy

Photo credit: Jessica Steddom

BGS 5+5: The Brother Brothers

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Artist: The Brother Brothers (Adam and David Moss)
Hometown: Peoria, Illinois
Latest Album: Calla Lily (out April 16, 2021, on Compass Records)

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

If I have to pick one, which is quite difficult, I’d have to pick John Hartford. I constantly admire, rediscover, and celebrate the effortlessness with which music and words flow out of him. When he writes, he writes about what he knows, and we are convinced to join him in his love of steamboats, old time Nashville, and so many other things that I’d normally walk on by. His musicality is so honest and of himself, and damn, it just sounds so good. He doesn’t subscribe to any “rules” and yet he’s so completely inside a style. — Adam

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

I have done a fair share of composition for dance, which has opened a whole new universe of creativity to me — the idea that movement, once catalogued, becomes an intentional means of expression has such a real and vibrant quality that no other art form can ever hope to encapsulate. Working with ballet dancers is amazing because the rigid tradition and pure athleticism of the art form creates an amazing palette that can really get inside different kinds of music, and the creativity flowing from choreographers of modern dance in NYC and around the world is just something so otherworldly but yet incredibly accessible. For some reference, I would recommend Batsheva Dance Company and the surrounding tradition of Gaga, and Nederlands Dance Theater. And of course the ever famous and incredible stewards of George Balanchine, the New York City Ballet. — David

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

This last year we’ve both been displaced by the pandemic and as a result have continuously traveled. Now, David is living with his fiancée and their dog in a scamp trailer, spending every day entirely surrounded by nature. I’m currently living in California and surfing every day. When you make your life in nature, you can’t help but let the waves and your wetsuit influence your rhythm and rhyme. The sunset is an impossible thing to describe, but we can keep trying. — Adam

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

There isn’t really such a thing as “a tough time writing a song,” in my experience. Songs, for me, are things found and worked out. If the process feels difficult, it usually requires waiting and trying different avenues. If you asked, “What is the longest it’s taken to write a song?” The answer would be a very very long time. — David

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Honestly, I can’t imagine a better pairing than Russ & Daughters’ smoked fish spread and dancing to one of the hottest klezmer bands in NYC. Second only to that would be another trip to Lafayette, Louisiana, to spend another weekend at Blackpot Festival, hanging with our Cajun friends down there, playing music and eating the contest-winning gumbo, jambalaya, and gravies of the year. — Adam

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

WATCH: Cole Quest and The City Pickers, “The Bitcoin Gambler”

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Artist: Cole Quest and The City Pickers
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “The Bitcoin Gambler”
Album Title: Self [En]Titled EP
Release Date: April 16, 2021
Label: Omnivore

In Their Words: “As a software engineer by day, a folk musician by night, and someone who lost a chunk of money in the Bitcoin crash of 2018, I felt I had a unique connection to this modern day dilemma. I wanted to write a song that would show the parallels of this moment to the gambling sagas folks have been telling for hundreds of years. First came the melody line written on guitar, and the rest of the song wrote itself in a matter of minutes. As the band laid down the tracks, I fell in love with the ending of the recording. You can hear how each musician found their own wonderfully unique voicing to this melody. As I was writing the song, I found myself reflecting on things that are important. Surely, gambling a few dollars was nothing to worry about, especially in contrast to the problems created by an ill-equipped fool in the White House.” — Cole Quest

Photo credit: James Salzano

WATCH: Elizabeth King, “Living in the Last Days”

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Artist: Elizabeth King
Hometown: Memphis, Tennessee
Song: “Living in the Last Days”
Album: Living in the Last Days
Release Date: April 2, 2021
Label: Bible & Tire Recording Co.

In Their Words: “There’s so much going on now that you wake up in the morning time and all you hear is something going wrong, you know. It’s affecting your children. People know they wrong but they think it’s right. How is it that a mother can hit a child in the streets and don’t even stop to think. It set my mind back, like in the Bible days, like when the lady went to sleep and killed her child and stole the other lady’s baby. It just let you know that time is getting shorter and shorter every day. If you notice the weather, it look like even the storms are mad. There’s just so many of them. There used to be a storm every now and then. Now, just look like it’s in a hurry to get it over with. I know I’m living in my last days. God already gave me my promise. Every day with him, it just gets sweeter.” — Elizabeth King

Photo courtesy of Nick Loss Eaton Media

WATCH: Jomo & the Possum Posse, “Self Quarantine”

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Artist: Jomo & the Possum Posse
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “Self Quarantine”
Album: Self Quarantine EP
Release Date: March 26, 2021
Label: Guy on a Buffalo

In Their Words: “I started 2020 with a challenge to myself to write a song every week for a full year. I had no idea the year would give me so much material! ‘Self Quarantine’ was written right at the time of the lockdown, when things were starting to get really crazy. People were hoarding groceries and supplies and generally freaking out. I loved the idea of using that as an excuse/metaphor to break it off with somebody. After more than a year of weekly songs, and the pandemic being such a big part of our lives, we decided to release an EP of some of our favorites.” – Jomo Edwards

Photo credit: Mike Wolfe

LISTEN: Kris Delmhorst, “Light Breaks Through”

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Artist: Kris Delmhorst
Hometown: Buckland, Massachusetts
Song: “Light Breaks Through”
Album: Light Breaks Through
Release Date: March 26, 2021
Label: Bandcamp only release

In Their Words: “‘Light Breaks Through’ is a pretty straight-ahead song about the moment after a long stretch of bad weather (literal or emotional) when you begin to believe it’s over. As I was writing it, it landed naturally in these feel-good chords that felt like a bit of a guilty pleasure, and I kept having the urge to make it more complicated. But ultimately I decided that it’s right for this one to feel effortless; effortlessness is exactly the point. When you’ve been struggling and it suddenly eases up, you don’t overthink it; your job is just to let go and enjoy feeling good.” — Kris Delmhorst

Photo credit: Brittany Powers

LISTEN: Keb’ Mo’ Feat. Old Crow Medicine Show, “The Medicine Man”

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Artists: Keb’ Mo’ featuring Old Crow Medicine Show
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Single: “The Medicine Man”
Release Date: March 19, 2021
Label: Concord Records

In Their Words: “I was taking some time out at our house in California with my family. We were locked in and staying away from people. Doing Zoom writing appointments, watching Dr. Fauci on TV doing interviews, and it sparked some ideas. This was one of those songs that just came to me, and quickly. I woke up early one morning and wrote the whole thing in about 15 minutes. Maybe it was the subliminal use of the word ‘medicine’ that made me think of my friend Ketch from Old Crow Medicine Show, so I called him and said, ‘I’ve got a song for you guys.’ In essence, the song is about things that are out of our control, but we should do our best to be good people and citizens and spread love instead of germs.” — Keb’ Mo’

“I first met Keb’ three years ago backstage at the Grand Ole Opry and sensed immediately that we needed to work together. I’d been listening to his music since the late ’90s, so this recent collaboration is something of a two-decade-long full circle of intentions. I called him up two autumns ago and asked if he’d hold some dates to play some live shows together and he said, ‘Can’t now, but soon.’ Well, soon enough came around again this past December when he sent me a brand new song he’d written a few hours before. The song captured the urgency of these stark times like no other I’d heard. It didn’t mince words. No sugarcoating, no placebo effects, rather it was a ‘give it to me straight, doc’ kind of a tune, which told an objective truth, one undiluted by affiliation, vantage point, persuasion. The song shook me up and I wrote back to him that night in December, ‘We got to rush this out soon. Real soon.’ Old Crow jumped right into gear, recording Keb’s powerful song of the times within days of the ink drying. It was a joy. It felt dutiful, meet and right, urgent, essential. And harmonious.” — Ketch Secor, Old Crow Medicine Show

Photo of Keb’ Mo’: Jeremy Cowart; Photo of Old Crow Medicine Show: Kit Wood