Maya De Vitry released her third solo record, Violet Light, earlier this year and I, for one, am happy that my fiancée has a new Maya record to play endlessly in our house. Lol jk. I love Maya and this album is perfect. Maya’s originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she lived and met the members of her old band The Stray Birds. Since the dissolution of the Birds, she’s been incredibly prolific with all these solo albums, co-writes and the like. If you’re not familiar, this record is a great intro to the genius of one of the greatest musicians on the scene today. The vibes I’m getting on this record are John Prine, Patty Griffin and, of course, Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings. We. Are. Digging. IN!
I’m so happy Maya was up for going through this beauty of a record track by track! It’s a brilliant collection that subtly knocks you to the ground over the course of its eleven songs. Produced at home with her partner, the much in-demand bassist and producer Ethan Jodziewicz (The Milk Carton Kids, Sierra Hull, Aoife O’Donovan, Darol Anger, Tony Trischka), Violet Light actually contains a ton of collaborations from Maya’s extensive musical community. This includes her own family; her siblings all collaborated for the very first time on tape for the song “Real Time, Real Tears,” about losing a favorite uncle. Yeah, you try not to cry during that one. Anyhoo. It feels like a gift to be able to turn these songs over and over, contemplate their meaning, their creation and then be able to talk directly to the brains behind it all. I implore you to check out this whole episode and then go buy Maya’s new album, preferably on Bandcamp. Support an independent artist whose music is meaningful and worth getting paid for. She’s a once in a lifetime artist.
Artist:Maya de Vitry Hometown: Lancaster, Pennsylvania Song: “Dogs Run On” Album:Violet Light Release Date: January 28, 2022 Label: Mad Maker Studio
In Their Words: “I grew up with a black lab named Georgia who was like a fifth sibling in our family. A little while after Georgia passed away, my parents got another black lab named Sylvie (she’s the one in this video). A lot of my musician friends got to meet Sylvie over the years, snuggling with her for a little bit while passing through Pennsylvania on tours. When Sylvie got sick in 2020, I really thought I was going to get to see her again, and at first I wrote a completely different song — it was called ‘Hold On, Sylvie.’ I finally realized I just wasn’t going to get to see her again, and the song became ‘Dogs Run On.’ My parents cared for their sweet friend until the difficult end, and Sylvie passed away in the sunshine in my mom’s arms in November 2020. Many thanks to Chris ‘Critter’ Eldridge for embodying the playful spirit of dogs in his gorgeous lead guitar playing on this track. Critter, Kristin Andreassen, and Ethan Jodziewicz are all such dog lovers, and it was really meaningful to make this song with them. This song is for all the best dogs, running through our hearts forever.” — Maya de Vitry
Artist:Della Mae Hometown: The United States Latest Album:Family Reunion Nicknames: Celia = Squawkbox; Kimber= Fiddler, Kimby, Auntie, Nimmers (Grammy only); Vickie = VV, Double V, Wickie Rejected Band Names: Big Spike Hammer
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
Thanks to my good friend and mentor Rickie Simpkins, I played a show on electric guitar with Emmylou Harris a few years ago. My favorite memory from the gig was actually the soundcheck and rehearsal. It was a really special thing to get to experience how an artist I deeply admire prepares for a performance and then get to be part of how it all came together. — Avril Smith
In 2012, we had the opportunity to go on a six-week tour of South and Central Asia with the State Department. The first show we played was in Islamabad, Pakistan at a women’s college. It was the most incredible energy we’ve ever felt in a room. They’d never heard bluegrass before and erupted in cheers and Beatles-worthy shrieks when we hit the first three-part harmony chorus. — Kimber Ludiker
What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?
“The Way It Was Before” took Mark Erelli and I six hours to write (three Zoom sessions). Half of that time was spent talking, looking up stories, getting really emotional about the state of the world. We wanted to make sure that every word counted, so we took our time and tried to honor each of the characters (who are actual people). The pandemic isn’t even behind us, and yet I keep hearing people say that they can’t wait to get back to “the old days.” There’s so much about “the old days” that needs changing. After everything we’ve been through in the last 18 months, I found that writing a song like this felt impossibly huge. I may not have finished it if it hadn’t been for Mark. — Celia Woodsmith
Which artist has influenced you the most…and how?
Missy Raines has influenced me the most. For obvious reasons, but let me explain: I was 14 years old watching Don Rigsby and Josh Williams play at my hometown venue, the Kentucky Opry. I saw her up on stage playing upright with them, so cool and beautiful and a master of her instrument. She was hanging with the boys and giving them all a run for their money. Then and there I decided that I wanted to do that for the rest of my days. When it comes to harmony singing, however? One hundred percent Diamond Rio. — Vickie Vaughn
If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?
We actually do have a mission statement as a band — to showcase top female musicians, and to improve opportunities for women and girls through advocacy, mentorship, programming, and performance. Our hope is that our music inspires more women and girls to pick up an instrument and use their voices to create art and work together to affect the kind of change they want to see in our world. — Avril Smith
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
FROM BIRTH. 😉 I’m a fifth-generation fiddler. I could play my first tunes at age 3. My earliest memories are playing fiddle tunes with my grandpa and brother. However, it wasn’t until my last year of college that I decided to make it my life. I saw how people struggled as musicians, and honestly, my brother was a bit of a child prodigy and I didn’t think I was good enough for a long time. I began to realize that everyone has their individual skills and talents, and I had something to contribute. — Kimber Ludiker
Welcome to the BGS Radio Hour! Since 2017, this weekly radio show and podcast has been a recap of all the great music, new and old, featured on the digital pages of BGS. This week, we bring you new music off of the beautiful new album Quietly Blowing It from Hiss Golden Messenger, as well as new music from Chris Thile, Maya De Vitry, and many more! Remember to check back every week for a new episode of the BGS Radio Hour.
BGS caught up with Nefesh Mountain on a recent 5+5, where the duo shared a mission statement for their career: “Invent, inspire, repeat!” They also told us about their favorite onstage moment and about the artists that have influenced them greatly.
Beta Radio’s new track, “I Need My Prayers,” was a surprise to Benjamin Mabry when he wrote it within 15 minutes. In speaking about the song’s meaning, he told BGS, “I was in a mental and spiritual place of needing something to hold onto, I felt like I had lost all my footing in the world and didn’t know where to turn. And a lot of personal things felt like they were falling apart. So… I guess I just needed my prayers.”
Maya De Vitry’s “Working Man” was inspired by the creation of railroads in the United States, and more specifically, how the men who physically laid down the tracks are often not the ones credited with building them. This led her to reflect upon the people in our society who are overworked, underpaid, and overlooked, which ultimately helped her write “Working Man.”
In speaking with BGS recently about “Time Won’t Tell,” Rory Feek shared how he first heard this song, and how it has become even more special to him after his wife’s passing.
Wilson Banjo Co. co-wrote “When The Crow Comes Down” with acclaimed Nashville songwriter Jordan Rainer. The song features a “spooky theme” and pure Appalachian tone, and has a wonderful music video to accompany it.
Chris Thile has long woven religious themes into his songwriting, but never so much as on his new album, Laysongs. When we asked him if he enjoyed talking about religion outside of his art, Thile stated that it’s always been an instinct of his to intertwine what he’s thinking about with religious imagery. “Ecclesiastes” expresses the depth of Bible verse Ecclesiastes 2:24 instrumentally, which Thile did purposefully. In his words: “What language is incapable of properly expressing, instrumental music steps up and says, ‘I got this.’”
“Glory Strums (Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner)” comes from Hiss Golden Messenger’s latest album, Quietly Blowing It. Recorded in the summer of 2020 in Durham, NC, Quietly Blowing It reflects a joyful spirit that combines N.C. warmth with an LA glow.
When Phil Leadbetter first heard Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” live, he was blown away. Years later in 2010, he recorded the track with his Scheerhorn guitar, but it was ultimately lost after some time. However, when Leadbetter recently found the track, he knew it would work perfectly for his new collection of resophonic guitar songs, Masters of Slide: Spider Sessions.
Mason Via’s “Big City” is what he calls, “a personal hillbilly mantra of sorts,” and it’s the first single off of the American Idol contestant’s debut album with Mountain Fever Records.
This Duos of Summer feature, “Ten Degrees of Strange,” comes from Robert Macfarlane and Johnny Flynn’s recent collaboration, Lost in the Cedar Wood. A week into lockdown, Macfarlane, a Cambridge University academic and bestselling author, reached out to his good friend and musician, Johnny Flynn, asking if he would like to write a song together. In speaking about working with Macfarlane and writing during the midst of the pandemic, Flynn said: It started as just a song, and then it became a few songs… but it held me in place and kept me from completely spinning out.”
In the words of Joe Mullins, “‘Living Left To Do’ is about enjoying our calling, celebrating God’s goodness, and the blessed assurance of life eternal. We’re ready to live, love, laugh, and have a lot more to do!'”
Lea Thomas’ “Hummingbird” was inspired by a dream she had, in which she turned into a white wolf and ran across the countryside, taken aback by the beauty and interconnectedness of life.
Photos: (L to R) Chris Thile by Josh Goleman; Maya de Vitry by Kaitlyn Raitz; Hiss Golden Messenger by Chris Frisina
Artist:Maya de Vitry Hometown: Lancaster, Pennsylvania Song: “Working Man” Release Date: January 8, 2021 Label: Mad Maker Studio
In Their Words: “When I was writing this song last summer I was thinking about the creation of the railroads in the United States, imagining the distance between the hands that physically laid the tracks and the statues and wealth and legacy of the men we remember as having ‘built’ the railroads. I was reflecting on the respect and dignity and security we all long for, the satisfaction of doing a job well done, the pride of being part of something greater than ourselves. The pandemic has elevated and made more visible some of the more underpaid and overworked people in our society, and it’s also made us face the instability of work in general. I was thinking about how so often the blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice of so many benefit the super-comfort of so few. How can we reimagine our society, and reimagine work, with the empathy and perspective we’ve gained from this last year?” — Maya de Vitry
2020 was a year of many things – COVID-19, existential elections, the shuttering of the music industry, and on and on – but one common, non-catastrophic throughline of the musical variety was cover songs. Many musicians and artists, finding themselves with more free time than usual and more standard-fare albums and cross-continental tours back-burnered, took the opportunity to explore live records, collaborations, and yes, covers. From Molly Tuttle to Wynonna, livestreams to socially-distanced shows, covers became an unofficial pandemic pastime.
Now, in 2021, many of these cover projects conceived and created in 2020 have made it to store shelves – digital and otherwise – and we’ve collected ten tributes worth a listen:
Shannon McNally covers Waylon Jennings
It’s fitting that Shannon McNally released The Waylon Sessions on Compass Records, whose headquarters now occupies “Hillbilly Central.” As Tompall Glaser’s former studio, the building helped give rise to country’s outlaw movement and it’s where Waylon himself recorded. With guests like Jessi Colter, Buddy Miller, Rodney Crowell, and Lukas Nelson, the project recontextualizes Waylon Jennings’ material, which is usually associated with hyper-masculine wings of the country scene. As McNally puts it in a press release, “What Waylon Jennings brought to country music is what country music needs right now, and that unapologetic and vulnerable sense of self are what women are tapping into artistically right now as the industry evolves.”
Steve Earle covers Justin Townes Earle
Many a musical child has covered their parents’ catalogs in retrospect, but it’s rare that we see the reverse. A gorgeous, gutting, and laid-bare album, Steve Earle’s J.T. is a ten-song tribute to his son, Justin Townes Earle, who passed away suddenly in August 2020, shocking the Americana and folk communities. Earle’s signature emotion bristles and crackles throughout the project, giving Justin Townes’ songs an even stronger quality of visceral electricity. Proceeds from the album will go to a trust for Etta St. James Earle, Justin Townes’ daughter and Steve’s granddaughter.
The Infamous Stringdusters cover Bill Monroe
Spread out from North Carolina to Colorado and beyond, the Infamous Stringdusters utilized home recording from their respective studios during the pandemic to accomplish musical creativity their jam-packed schedule hadn’t really allowed in the “before times.” Their brand new EP, A Tribute to Bill Monroe, returns the virtuosic jamgrass outfit to territory familiar to those who first found the group when they were cutting their teeth, striding out from traditional bluegrass into the vast, expansive newgrass-and-jamgrass unknown. The project illustrates that the true strength of this ensemble is found in utilizing traditional bluegrass aesthetics for their own creative purposes. For example, you might listen through the entire record without realizing the Stringdusters made a Bill Monroe tribute album without mandolin!
Mandy Barnett covers Billie Holiday
Mandy Barnett is a cross-genre chameleon; between her talent, her voice’s timeless Americana tinge, and her appetite for classics — from Nashville staples to the American songbook — she often finds herself reaching far beyond Music Row and classic country to R&B, standards, and in her most recent release, Billie Holiday covers. Every Star Above was recorded in 2019, pre-pandemic, and includes ten songs from Holiday’s 1958 Lady in Satin album – songs previously also covered by Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, and many, many others. The project feels akin to Linda Ronstadt’s pop and big band forays, never fully detached from Barnett’s country roots, but built atop their solid foundation. In another Ronstadt-esque move, Barnett partnered with recently departed jazz arranger Sammy Nestico; Every Star Above was the award-winning composer’s final project.
Charley Crockett covers James Hand
Country-western crooner Charley Crockett is truly prolific, having released nine full-length albums in the past six years. As the story goes, before his friend, acclaimed Texan singer-songwriter James “Slim” Hand passed away unexpectedly about a year ago, Crockett promised he would record his songs. “Lesson in Depression” captures the sly, winking quality of the best sort of sad-ass country, which isn’t burdened by its own melodrama. While it’s certain Crockett (as Tanya Tucker would put it) would have rather brought Slim his flowers while he was living, there’s a poignancy in how 10 For Slim – Charley Crockett Sings James Hand, like Earle’s J.T., immediately demonstrates how these impactful musical legacies will live on.
Lowland Hum cover Peter Gabriel
Lowland Hum’s album covering Peter Gabriel’s So — which they’ve cutely and aptly entitled So Low — began as a passing joke, but the folk duo of husband-and-wife Daniel and Lauren Goans followed the passion and fun that led them to Gabriel’s hit 1986 release, quickly unspooling the passing whim into inspiration for a full-blown project. “We already loved the iconic record, but in translating Gabriel’s melodies and otherworldly arrangements,” they explain on their website, “we fell even deeper in love with the songs, Gabriel’s voice, and his uncanny ability to fully inhabit both vulnerability and playfulness…” Their “quiet music,” minimalist approach is well suited to the material and the entire project is incredibly listenable, comforting, and subtly envelope-pushing.
Chrissie Hynde covers Bob Dylan
After The Bard released “Murder Most Foul” and “I Contain Multitudes” early in 2020 (and in the pandemic) founder, singer, songwriter, and guitarist for The Pretenders Chrissie Hynde was inspired to once again revisit Dylan’s catalog – a limitless fount of material with which she was already intimately familiar. Her new album, Standing in the Doorway, features nine Dylan tracks recorded with fellow Pretenders guitarist James Walbourne – almost exclusively via text message – and for their coronavirus YouTube video series. Hynde opts for deeper cuts, showcasing her affinity for swaths of Dylan’s career often overlooked by other would-be cover-ers. This classic, “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” feels appropriately sentimental and longing, a perfect encapsulation of the day-to-day of the realities of the pandemic, filtered through a Bob Dylan lens and Hynde’s distinctive voice.
Various Artists cover John Lilly
John Lilly is a songwriter’s songwriter. Based in West Virginia, his original music has been covered by modern legends like Tim O’Brien, Kathy Mattea, and Tom Paxton. April In Your Eyes: A Tribute to the Songs of John Lilly gathers various artists from the folk, old-time, and bluegrass communities – in West Virginia and otherwise – spotlighting the incredible depth and breadth of Lilly’s catalog. The title track is stunningly rendered by Maya de Vitry and Ethan Jodziewicz, who were connected with Lilly originally through West Virginia’s iconic old-time pickers’ gathering affectionately referred to as “Clifftop.” Paxton, O’Brien, and Mattea all make appearances on the project, as do Brennen Leigh & Noel McKay, Bill Kirchen, and many other members of Lilly’s musical family and inner circle, giving the project an intentional and intimate resonance.
American Aquarium cover ’90s Country Hits
BJ Barham’s American Aquarium dropped a surprise album, Slappers, Bangers, & Certified Twangers: Volume One in May. Featuring ten covers of some of the band’s favorite ‘90s country hits, it’s a dose of all-star-tribute-concert packaged in a pandemic-friendly stay-at-home-form – and available on John Deere Green vinyl, of course. One particularly sad casualty of the coronavirus pandemic has been these sorts of musical nostalgia bombs – when was the last time any of us attended a theme night or tribute show at say, the Basement East in Nashville or Raleigh, NC’s The Brewery? – and Slappers, Bangers, & Certified Twangers has us in the mood to attend the first ‘90s country covers live show possible now that things are finally reopening.
Various Artists cover John Prine
A year without Prine seems far, far too long to travel with such a Prine-shaped hole in our musical hearts. But his presence and legacy certainly still loom large; the Prine family has announced “You Got Gold: Celebrating the Life & Songs of John Prine,” a series of special concerts and events held across various venues in Nashville in October. Oh Boy Records is also planning to release a new tribute record, Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, Vol. 2, to coincide with You Got Gold. The first two tracks from the project that have already been unveiled feature Sturgill Simpson performing “Paradise” and Brandi Carlile’s rendition of “I Remember Everything,” which you can hear above. Each month until October, the Prine family and Oh Boy will release another song from the project, unveiling special guests who each pay tribute to Prine, his songs, and the enormous vacuum his loss has left in the roots music industry.
Welcome to the BGS Radio Hour! Since 2017, the show has been a weekly recap of all the great music, new and old, featured on BGS. This week, we’ve got new releases from Lindsay Lou and Blue Water Highway while we continue to celebrate our artist of the month – Black Pumas! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode of the BGS Radio Hour.
This quartet – who come from a working class, small town Texas background – bring us a mixtape, featuring their big inspirations, from Bruce Springsteen to Phoebe Bridgers. Blue Water Highway graces our show this week with this tongue-in-cheek take on thankfulness from their upcoming album Paper Airplanes.
Iowa-based singer and songwriter David Huckfelt brings a single to the show this week, from his soon to be released Room Enough, Time Enough. “‘Hidden Made Known’ is about having faith in the basic intelligence of the universe, and what to do next when you lose it,” Huckfelt tells BGS. “From Wounded Knee to Sault Ste. Marie, tenderness is on the run.”
Our current Artist of the Month, Black Pumas, recently caught up with BGS to talk about their biggest influences, from a gospel music upbringing to original MTV. Black Pumas (Deluxe Edition) is up for Album of the Year at the GRAMMYs!
Miko Marks is reclaiming the music that Stephen Foster appropriated his way to success with. In anticipation of her upcoming album Our Country, what better place to start than this famous song?
Sway Wild brings us this appropriately titled anxiety-inspired song from their upcoming self-titled album. Based in the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest, the group is not alone in needing to share their mental struggles as we journey through 2021.
From the mountains of Western North Carolina, Anya Hinkle and Graham Sharp (Steep Canyon Rangers) bring us this new single, written on May 26, 2020 – the first day without George Floyd. “Only by listening to Black voices are we going to know what it is gonna take,” Hinkle told BGS. “We are still so divided and will remain ignorant until we can absorb what it’s like to be Black in America.”
No stranger to BGS and the roots scene, Lindsay Lou offers The Suite Sweets, four songs combined into two for an A and B-side single. Inspired by Immersion Composition Society (ISC) writing lodges, writing for hours as uninhibitedly as possible, the Nashville-based artist combined these song segments into something that was greater than just the sum of their parts.
Chris DuPont brings us a song from Floodplains, out now via Sharehouse Audio. Writing during a time of loss, DuPont recognized an opportunity to grow, for the great “sanding” of loss to smooth out the rough edges, and to not let bitterness overshadow the narrative.
IBMA award winning band Sideline tells this story through both song and visual representation. The video tells the story of the song in perfect synchronicity, pulling the viewer even deeper into the story.
From our 2020 Whiskey Sour Happy Hour segment, we’re bringing back this haunting performance from roots artist Rhiannon Giddens accompanied by Francesco Turrisi. Giddens, who has been outspoken throughout her career about the African-American origins of country music, is another featured artist in our Black Voices segment, uplifting the disenfranchised voices in roots music that helped create the genre.
Texas-based Beth Lee wrote this song before her birthday, and sent it to Vicente Rodriguez for his birthday (who would go on to be her producer for the record). Recorded by Lee, Rodriguez, and James Deprato – who coincidentally had a birthday during the week of recording – this song was the first sign to Lee that her Waiting On You Tonight was going to be a good record.
Though not originally written as a duet, nothing suited Erelli’s song better than vocal accompaniment from Maya de Vitry. Without holding anything back, they emphasize the song’s message – that we all have the opportunity to make something new.
Photos: (L to R) Black Pumas from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert; Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi by Ebru Yildiz; Lindsay Lou by Scott Simontacchi
Artist:Mark Erelli Hometown: Melrose, Massachusetts Song: “Handmade” (featuring Maya de Vitry) Album:Jackpot EP Release Date: February 12, 2021 Label: Soundly Music
In Their Words: “Sometimes I’ll write a song that just truly comes alive when turned into a duet. I didn’t write ‘Handmade’ for two people to sing, but it didn’t take much to retrofit it to include another voice. The question of who that voice should be was a harder decision, made difficult by the shear number of amazing singers in Nashville where we recorded the song. I was a big fan of The Stray Birds, and when Maya de Vitry went out on her own for her 2019 solo album Adaptations, I was truly blown away. I love listening to all types of voices, but I really love singing with someone who can dig in and match my dynamics, which inspires me to dig deeper. Singing with Maya, I didn’t have to hold anything back, and I think the strength our vocals project reinforces the song’s message that sometimes you have to dig in, roll up your sleeves, and really work to make love happen.” — Mark Erelli
“It was an absolute joy to sing ‘Handmade’ with Mark. As a guest in Mark’s recording process, I was stepping into whatever culture and atmosphere that they (Mark, his band, producer Zack, engineer Dan) already had going in the studio — and I remember stepping into that room and finding a place of pure warmth and enthusiasm. Harmony singing is one of my favorite things in the world — I get to feel the emotional intensity and energy and character of a song, and then actually climb into it and do my best to help convey the story. I think Mark’s lyrics here are especially resonant in this moment, because a lot of us are taking a more ‘handmade’ approach to everything these days. And that line ‘I can’t wait to see what we’re gonna make’ really hits me now too — in dreaming about our future beyond the pandemic, and how we won’t just be returning to something in the past… we all have an opportunity to make something new.” — Maya de Vitry
Photo of Mark Erelli: Joe Navas; Photo of Maya de Vitry: Kaitlyn Raitz
There are a whole lot of ways you can tell the story of 2020, but for us here at BGS, it will be remembered as a year of especially remarkable songwriting from women in roots music.
We lead our playlist with the one and only Dolly Parton, who assured us that life will be good again. Parton’s songwriting is presented in an enticing new book, Songteller, and her ability to articulate complicated emotions — through lyrics that speak to all walks of life — is something that Brandi Carlile picked up on as a teenager. In this video interview from the 2020 BMI Country Awards (with a cameo from Dolly at the end), Carlile explains how Parton’s perspective on equality kept Carlile from divorcing country music completely.
Parton, who turns 75 next month, shares a number of important qualities with a new generation of singer-songwriters she’s inspired. In the case of Brandi Carlile, there’s a sense of belonging that is woven throughout their work, from Parton’s “Joshua” to Carlile’s “Carried Me With You.” Like Parton, Brennen Leigh is able to capture a sense of place and make it relatable, even for a listener who’s never been there. Kyshona Armstrong offers a sense of self-worth and self-awareness in her writing, as Parton does, allowing listeners to know them better. Likewise, Maya de Vitry and Parton share a sense of wonder and joy, portraying landscapes — internal and external — that are imagined, yet vivid.
On Prairie Love Letter, her full-length paean to her homeland on the Minnesota-North Dakota border, Brennen Leigh demonstrates a visceral, evocative grounding – just as Parton constantly speaks of her Tennessee mountain home: with a glint in her eye, and a sorrow in her heart for knowing she had no choice but to leave it. Leigh stakes her claim on both the wide, expansive plains and Nashville all at once, asking her audience “Don’t you know I’m from here?” As if to remind she’s as at home in bluegrass and country — and Music City — as Dolly herself.
“Backwoods Barbie,” “Dumb Blonde,” and “Just Because I’m a Woman” are all perfect examples of Parton’s lifelong radical self-possession. She expresses her agency boldly, confidently, without (visible) second guessing – from her wigs to her infamous tattoos to her nothing-special acknowledgement of her plastic surgeries, struggles with suicidal ideation, and so on, she is her fully realized, autonomous self. As Dolly told Jad Abumrad on Dolly Parton’s America, “Who we are is who we are… I would just bow out if I wasn’t allowed to be me…” Kyshona Armstrong‘s prescient album, Listen, holds similar space, as Armstrong doesn’t simply ask folks to listen; her presence, compassion, and radical honesty demand it. Because, first and foremost, she’s welcoming and non-judgmental in that aim, you will find yourself fully enveloped by her music before you realize the conviction within it.
Maya de Vitry made a gorgeous, poetic foray into heavier, rockier turf with How to Break a Fall, a gutsy, genre-bending set of songs. Their anger, release, and passion, expressed by the folk-rock production style, feels right out of Parton’s post-White Limozeen era, an effortless combination of seemingly disparate musical influences, distilled into something that, almost above all else, feels joyful. Where male-centered rock and roll finds itself often hung up on its endemic toxic masculinity, de Vitry and Parton stride into electrified sounds with their femininity forward, and the result is as charming as it is subversive.
It’s striking, among such an incredible volume of musical output from their Americana and country peers this year, that these women would stand out, above and beyond the still-common glass ceilings imposed upon them for decades. Dolly blazed a trail, but these dozens of writers — and singers and pickers and composers and front women and side musicians and authors and poets — would have crashed through inevitably on their own. With songs like Adia Victoria’s “South Gotta Change,” Sunny War’s “Can I Sit With You?,” “Troubled Times” from Laurie Lewis, the Secret Sisters’ “Cabin,” it’s obvious Dolly Parton’s songwriting legacy will be inherited by multiple generations worthy of carrying it on.
Throughout 2020, the BGS editorial team embraced this wealth of excellent music from women songwriters in roots music. It has been a privilege to share these original voices with our readers, too. Here are 50 of our favorite tracks from 2020:
Photo credit: Daniel Jackson for BGS, Newport Folk Fest 2019
When Maya de Vitry quit her most recent full-time touring gig, she did it for self-preservation. Before her solo debut Adaptations was released in 2019, the multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter prioritized her life by centering community, home, and a sense of place in what had often been a frantic, taxing, and nomadic daily life.
Her second, just-released album, How to Break a Fall, was tracked almost immediately after Adaptations hit shelves, and with a harder, more grizzled, rockier aesthetic it demonstrated the growth and transformation that had occurred in the meantime. A sense of movement, of excited, unapologetic momentum permeates the Dan Knobler-produced project. Where Adaptations had seen de Vitry through a transition to stillness, How to Break a Fall was poised to carry her into still another new period for the budding solo artist.
Enter a global pandemic. With nearly all of that momentum and her entire release cycle squandered on a music industry that had to shutter itself in the face of COVID-19, de Vitry found herself once again prioritizing, enjoying each individual moment at home, focusing on community in whatever shape it can take at this point, and baking banana bread, too. It turns out practice does make perfect.
BGS spoke to de Vitry over the phone, immediately diving into how serendipitous this collection of songs is for a moment of global pausing.
BGS: The last record, Adaptations, was written in isolation and now you’ve landed with this new record, How to Break a Fall, and on the back end of it you’ve ended up in isolation again. I wondered if you’ve thought about that? Or considered the strange symmetry, the way that these records are bookended by the idea of intentional solitude?
de Vitry: [Laughs] Wow, I absolutely did not connect those dots and that is so wild. It’s so ironic, because I was feeling very frustrated and angry about losing all of these shows this spring and I was finally feeling like [I was ready to get on the road] — because with Adaptations I didn’t tour really at all. I wasn’t emotionally or mentally healthy enough to be touring my music, I wasn’t ready to be on stage. Then this time, I felt emotionally healthy to go out there and play shows and it was like, “Oh, but the world has another health situation going on.”
In some ways, How to Break a Fall was also written in isolation. I had kind of cut myself off a bit from the East Nashville scene, because I needed some space from the patterns and circles of people. I needed space from touring and leaving [the Stray Birds]. I was working at Starbucks while I was writing the album and I was essentially in isolation. You go to work for eight hours, come home, and you’re just in your house again. It was still voluntary, and I definitely still had some community. I could still pop out and play a show.
I’m kind of an introverted person, so I’m always in isolation when I’m writing — in some way. I’ve been writing so much in the last couple of weeks. I was ready to kind of emerge, I was ready to go and be out there, and in interaction, instead of isolation. Now it’s like mandatory isolation and I’m going to write.
What does that feel like to you? Does it feel like a grinding of the gears? Like, “Oh, hold on, we’ve gotta turn this ship around and it’s going to take some effort and energy for me to go back into the writing frame of mind when I was ready to be in the outward-facing, extroverted frame of mind.”
It feels like muscle memory. It’s like a pivot. That part of it has not been difficult. I think accessing the writing part, the inward part of being an artist, is [always] within reach. I get as much satisfaction from creating the stuff as I do performing the stuff, if not more. I would say the process of writing an album, recording an album, and being in the studio with people is so fulfilling to me. Just creating it. There’s almost a grieving process when that’s over. Then there’s the next thing, when the songs come alive… I was looking forward to that, seeing how the songs would live and evolve and change. How they would land, out there in the world in real time with people. What other choice do I have? Let’s just pivot. Let’s write another record. [Laughs]
“Better and Better” is about the idea of building something and the song feels pertinent in this moment of… pausing, let’s say, because I think we could all eventually agree that life isn’t about being the best, it’s about being better. It’s about being better than the moment before, the day before, the year before. How do you see that song’s potential for connecting with listeners right now?
That song was like the doorway for writing the rest of that album and it was the doorway because, through writing it, I was realizing that I was actually unwell. Some of the things I was singing about, those lyrics were all things that I wanted to believe, and I realized that I had to make changes. I had to stop doing something that felt normal. I had to leave the band that I was in, I had to stop touring for a while, and yeah, that in some ways does remind me of this moment, too. The only thing we really can control right now is how we take care of ourselves — and that’s also sort of the only thing we ever can control. But it’s easier to feel that when it feels like other things are so outside of our control.
I felt myself stop, stock still in the moment that I heard the line, “Forgiving myself is the most I can do” go by, because I don’t think a lot of people realize that’s what we’re doing every day right now, to get through. Letting ourselves just be enough. Where does that line come from for you?
That line is specifically about staying. About staying in the situation I was in. Before I was in [the Stray Birds], I was a musician. I was playing fiddle tunes, I was really into old-time music, I was writing songs, and I started to draft up what would be a solo record — in like 2009 and 2010. Then the band became like an invisible fence. There was no room for anyone to be doing anything outside of the band. There was no physical room, for all of the time we were on the road, and there was no emotional room with the interpersonal dynamic of the band. It was not possible to continue to be myself, to nurture my own voice as a writer and musician and also be a member of that band, because of the environment of the band.
Forgiving myself, in that line, is about forgiving my nineteen-year-old self for not knowing any better at the time. And forgiving myself for my fears, because it was easier [to avoid them instead]. It’s vulnerable to sing your lyrics at all, ever, and I’m forgiving myself for those fears I had. Instead of standing up with my name and my lyrics, it was easier to climb inside the identity of a band and feel protected and more secure.
Which is quite the contrast from How to Break a Fall, because, to me, this record feels like a statement, a declaration for women to be allowed to take up space. And to be allowed to access and enjoy as much of the oxygen in those spaces as they like. Songs like “Something In the Way She Moves,” “Gray,” definitely “Open the Door” all speak to this. And the rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic often feels angry and impassioned, but the music doesn’t feel hostile in the way that it channels those energies.
That’s one hundred percent right. That comes from that process of forgiveness. It comes from walking through that doorway, the doorway being “Better and Better,” and walking into this landscape of songs and being receptive to writing that story. I think the record doesn’t sound hostile because it’s not. These are the songs, these are the sounds that I felt like making, this is a story. These things are true for me.
There’s this video of Sister Rosetta Tharpe playing incredible guitar, walking up and down this train platform, it’s an iconic taking-up-of-space. An iconic expression of joy. That kind of spirit is what’s behind this music and this record. For as much as I can control what people can get from it, I would hope that some of what it unlocks or awakens is, “Huh… there are a lot of female characters on this record taking up space and doing what they want.”
It’s not hostile because it’s taking the responsibility of going inward by going to my own interior and inviting listeners to go into their interiors and see what’s going on in there. In the song “Revolution” it’s like, What are these walls? What’s inside of me? If this is the way that my eyes have been trained to see, what new world am I going to see? If I can’t shift the lens or something on the inside, how am I going to see a world that’s [different?] It’s happened so many times in history, whether it’s women’s rights or gay rights or the civil rights movement. We have to practice imagining the impossible. That’s connected to why it’s not hostile.
When that’s the reason behind the music and the intent behind the record, the volume of it or whether it’s an electric or an acoustic guitar or if it’s rock or folk — none of that matters to me. [Laughs] This is the story I’m telling!
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