Tag: holly williams

John Prine with Holly Williams, ‘I’m Tellin’ You’

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Keeping the circle unbroken in country music is a very serious thing — legacy, family, and tradition are not to be taken lightly, with certain last names (Williams, Jennings, Cash, to name a few) holding the most shimmering of golden thrones. There's that legacy, and then there are the interlopers: like a singer/songwriter from Illinois named John Prine who, without any actual geographical or genetic pre-programming, manages to carry in his body some of thickest, most brilliant blood in the business, grabbing a laugh in the same sentence as a tear. Few can blend wit and wisdom like Prine can, often because he takes that storied circle and warps it into loops and figure eights, without ever losing its original foundation.

Despite his unparalleled skills as a songwriter, one of Prine's most beloved LP's is 1999's In Spite of Ourselves, a collection of classic country duets that contained only one original: the title track, sung with Iris DeMent, which boasts lines about big balls and underwear-sniffin' while still managing to paint a sincere picture of love enduring, for better or worse. It's a purely Prine move that, on an album of reverence, he still warped tradition to suit his splendors and squeezed sweetness out of a panty-puffer.

Thus it's why his version of "I'm Tellin' You," off For Better, Or Worse — his casual companion to In Spite of Ourselves — is one of the truest examples of how Prine, even when not driven by his own pen, twists and tangles the past in his own tender humor. One of the album's more unassuming little ditties, the duet with Holly Williams bends tradition (Williams, of course, is the granddaughter of Hank and her grandmother, Audrey Williams, used to perform the tune) with the Prine eye, turning it from a solo affair into a push-pull conversation. "You better straighten out, I'm tellin' you," they sing to each other while a mischievous fiddle dances along. Prine saw the charm in those aged words but knew that all love is a two-way street — not just preserving the circle, but turning it into a sphere.

New Book Pulls Back the Curtain on Nashville

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Nashville has had a rich cultural legacy for decades now, one deeply rooted in country music and Southern tradition. In more recent years, however, Music City's lesser known, non-country creative community — which boasts talent from all genres of music, as well as fields as varied as the culinary and visual arts — has gained national attention, earning praise from the New York Times, inspiring the televison show Nashville, and drawing an average of 1,500 new residents per month. In short, Nashville has been having a moment. Photographers Sonya Jasinski and Kate York sought to capture Nashville during that moment in their newly released book, Nashville: Behind the Curtain.

"Almost three years ago, Sonya was traveling back and forth, shooting artists here and we met through a mutual friend, Lucie Silvas, in town. Once I saw her photography — and I had just started taking photos myself — we both realized we had similar eyes," York says. "We started talking about what was happening in Nashville right now and how it’s such an incredible place that everyone seems to be wanting to move to, and it’s not just about country music anymore. I’m a songwriter and I was finding myself in a lot of interesting spots, as far as people I was collaborating with and moments that I really wanted to capture. So we decided to put this project together about all of the different creatives in Nashville, from songwriting process to the artists and producers and the whole collaborative part."

The book — which features a foreword from Kacey Musgraves, an introduction by Kings of Leon's Nathan Followill, and an afterword by Holly Williams — highlights Jasinksi's and York's insider's view of the city, with a stunning collection of portraits of Nashville figures, ranging from country legend Emmylou Harris to Nashville actress Connie Britton to super producer Jay Joyce. A songwriter herself — she's responsible for several of those Nashville tunes you know and love — York counts many of these figures as friends, giving the book itself that same feeling of community for which Nashville has come to be known. 

"I’ve been writing in town for over a decade, so a lot of the people in the book were already friends of mine," she explains. "Through the show Nashville, as well. Everybody just seemed really on board with it. We pitched the idea, and then our publisher wanted us to incorporate stories, as well. Originally, it was just going to be photography and it sort of morphed as we were putting the project together and it turned into us getting artist contributions and stories, asking everybody a few questions like, ‘What’s your favorite Nashville moment? What do you love about this town?’ As the stories started coming in, that’s what solidified it for me as a project. It made it feel real, and not just photography. "

Those stories, which show a deep affection for the city from both old and new residents, paint Nashville as a haven for creativity, making it no wonder so much talent and so many people have flocked here in the last few years.

"Reading people’s stories that are newer in town and seeing their outlook on how everybody has embraced them was really special, I thought," York says. "Mary Steenburgen … her contribution is one of my favorites in the book. We were writing together a few years back and that’s how I got to know her, because she’s become a songwriter later in life. She comes from the whole Hollywood scene, obviously, and once she moved to Nashville, she could not believe how many friends she had overnight. Whereas in L.A., she’s been there for probably 30 years and she said she can count on two hands how many close friends she had. When she moved to Nashville, she felt like she had a hundred immediately. I think people that move here from other cities, that seems to be kind of the overall feeling of Nashville. It’s very welcoming and not competitive. There’s a very strong community here, and you can feel that."

Get your own copy of Nashville: Behind the Curtain here.

Up Your Vinyl Game with Magnolia Record Club

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It's no secret that we're in the midst of something of a vinyl revolution. While the fate of the music industry as a whole has been a topic of debate for some time now, vinyl sales were up 30 percent in 2015. And with increasing sales, come increasing opportunities — like the artist-curated vinyl club Magnolia Record Club. Founded by Nashville-via-Memphis musician Drew Holcomb, Magnolia Record Club is a monthly subscription service that, thus far, has served up records by Patty Griffin, Colony House, Holcomb himself, and, most recently, Penny & Sparrow.

"I had heard of a few other vinyl clubs, but not any that were curated by an artist," Holcomb explains. "I know we have a lot of fans who love vinyl and share similar musical tastes to me, so I thought it would be a fun experiment to see if they would trust me to curate records they would want."

Holcomb also sees the club as a way of further connecting his fans and the broader music community. "More than anything, it was about identifying a community within a community," he says. "I feel like people who buy vinyl, for the most part, feel an even stronger connection to music than the average music fan. It’s a very cool subculture and I wanted to find out who those people are in our fan community."

Following March's pick of Penny & Sparrow's Let a Lover Drown You, the next LP subscribers can look forward to is the Lumineers' forthcoming sophomore album, Cleopatra.

"I used to be on Dualtone Records, the Lumineers' label, and I was privy to their debut album before it came out and, like many other people, I knew it was a smash record," Holcomb says. "I started following the band on Twitter before they even had 1,000 followers, so it is fun to tell that story to the club as they set to release their long-awaited follow-up." 

As if starting a new vinyl venture isn't enough to keep him busy, Holcomb also recently released an album, Medicine, with his project Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors.

"I wrote Medicine alone, and it was a very personal and intentional album for me," Holcomb says of the LP. "We recorded it in a very classic way — live, with very few overdubs. I even recorded my vocals and acoustic guitars simultaneously, and each song was recorded in one take, start to finish. I wanted the album to feel very warm, nostalgic, but present, and I hope we did that. Our fans reacted very well to this record. It seems like the most cohesive album I have released yet."

Wanna join the club? There's the option to subscribe yourself or, if you're feeling particularly generous, you can gift a friend with a 3-, 6-, or 12-month subscription. Sign up by the end of the day (March 15) to get March's release. If you subscribe after March 15, your first record will be April's pick, the Lumineers. Subscribe here and get to spinnin'.

And … if you're feeling lucky, we've teamed up with MRC for a little contest: Enter code "BGS" at checkout for your chance to win a one-time vinyl four-pack co-curated by BGS and Holcomb, and featuring LPs by Holly Williams, Dylan LeBlanc, Etta Baker, and Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors. You're welcome!