Tag: Nashville

BGS 5+5: Liz Longley

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Liz Longley
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Latest album: Funeral For My Past

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I grew up in and around music. I was young when I started dreaming of being a singer, but I truly had no idea what it entailed. Despite being shy and introverted, I would sing solos in the middle school choir. At fourteen, I started writing my own music. When I first played an original song, I got a standing ovation from my high school body. That’s a powerful moment for a kid. I knew then that music was what I wanted to do with my life.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

When it’s about me, I sing it from my perspective. It’s harder for me to connect to it when I’m hiding in character. But, I usually have one or two songs per record written from another person’s perspective. Getting outside of my own story and my own perspective can be very liberating. On my latest record, “Long Distance” was not written about my life specifically. Using lyrics to basically design a set in which to tell a story is a great exercise in creativity.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Joni Mitchell is always my answer to that question. I was listening to Blue non-stop as I started writing my own music. Listening to Blue taught me that if you have a great song, you don’t need to dress it up much. A great song, a beautiful voice and a guitar still get me every time.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

After ten straight years of touring, I have been lucky to experience so many wonderful things on stage. As far as favorite shows go, I’d probably choose one of the last shows I played pre-COVID. It was February and I was headlining The Bluebird Cafe here in Nashville, Tennessee. The show was an intimate celebration, packed with people I love who flew in from all around the country. That night kicked off a whole weekend spent with twenty Kickstarter donors who made Funeral For My Past possible. It was the kind of togetherness that I really miss these days.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

A good little vocal warm-up always calms me down and helps me prepare for shows/singing in the studio. The one I do now involves blowing into a straw that is in a cup of water. It’s not annoying at all for anyone who has to hear it. 😉

Photo credit: Kate Rentz

LISTEN: Will Kimbrough, “My Right Wing Friend”

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Artist: Will Kimbrough
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “My Right Wing Friend”
Album: Spring Break
Release Date: October 23, 2020
Label: Daphne/Soundly

In Their Words: “I wrote ‘My Right Wing Friend’ after reading a dear old friend’s Twitter posts. I knew if we communicated personally, we would still be those dear old friends who shared 40 years of memories, from high school through his college and my early touring years, through the time we raised our children. We’d always been political opposites. And we’d always had friendly debates and agreed to disagree. It’s tougher now, in a way — with a glance, you can find something to hate about people you love. I am learning to communicate personally with my right wing friend. That way, we keep our friendship alive. This is a love song to friendship. As my friend said, after he heard the song for the first time, ‘Come over here and let me kiss you on the lips, my left wing friend.’ Still laughing. Still friends.” — Will Kimbrough

Photo credit: Sadie Kimbrough

WATCH: Jeremy Ivey, “Things Could Get Much Worse”

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Artist: Jeremy Ivey
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Things Could Get Much Worse”
Album: Waiting Out The Storm
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Label: ANTI-

In Their Words: “I don’t write a whole lot of positive songs, but I try to have one per record at least. So this my positive message for the world. These are the good old days no matter how bad they seem. Just remember, life could suck a lot more. This song was written in about ten minutes, this is our first take in the studio and the video was shot in a couple hours. All in the moment and off the cuff, the way it should be! Also, watch out for Elon, I don’t trust that guy.” — Jeremy Ivey

Photo credit: Alysse Gafkjen

The String – Daniel Donato and Jake Blount

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week, two remarkable emerging artists who’ve put in a quarter century and found unique pathways.


LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS

Daniel Donato landed a plum guitar gig in downtown Nashville at age 16 and now he’s building a new world of twangy jam with his debut LP ‘A Young Man’s Country’. Jake Blount is re-defining old-time music with banjo and fiddle out of his DC base. His anti-racist push is forcing bluegrass and Americana to investigate its origins and its audience. His new album Spider Tales is a showcase of the Black roots of our shared music.

BGS 5+5: Grant-Lee Phillips

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Grant-Lee Phillips
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Latest album: Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Pistol, Ranchero

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Neil Young I suppose. His music hit me at just the right time. I had been playing guitar for two years when I first heard “Down by the River” and “Cortez the Killer.” I was 16. My ears were wide open. Young’s songs spoke to me like no other. He was also the first singer I saw in concert. All alone, with a rack of acoustic guitars, an upright piano on one side of the stage, a grand on the other, a pump organ. I was mesmerized.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

My family loved music. Hee Haw was a big one. We never missed a show. My grandma loved Elvis and Johnny Cash. The excitement I felt when Roy Clark played “Orange Blossom Special” or “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” on the electric guitar, I wanted to feel that all the time. The TV show Austin City Limits introduced me to Lightning Hopkins, John Prine and Tom Waits. I recall those moments like yesterday.

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

The hardest prolonged period of song wrestling was back in the ‘90s after Grant Lee Buffalo had put out a few albums. The pressure was on to deliver. The question was, deliver what to whom? I did my best to put all that noise out of my head. You can go from dancing on a ledge like Buster Keaton one minute to vertigo the next. Thankfully I had come across the film director Andrei Tarkovsky’s defiant book Sculpting in Light and that became a temporary manifesto.

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

I paint a great deal these days. Landscapes and still life. It slows me down and demands another degree of focus. Composition involves strategic thinking but there’s a wild side to painting. I like that balance. It gives me insight to making music.

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

Tennessee is one of the greenest states in the country. I’m never so in tune with my own spirit as when I surrounded by elms and oaks. During this pandemic our family has made a point to take a drive every day. We drive through the country, roll down the windows and breathe some fresh air. One of my other rituals involves drawing. Every day I set aside 20-30 minutes to sketch. I have notebooks full of trees, landscapes in the works. Trees, clouds — that’s my sanctuary. Some of these images find their way into my lyrics, which is just another way of painting a picture.

Photo credit: Denise Siegel-Phillips

LISTEN: Great Peacock, “Heavy Load”

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Artist: Great Peacock
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Heavy Load”
Album: Forever Better Worse
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Label: Soundly Music

In Their Words: “I don’t totally know what this song means or is about. I just know that it makes me feel a lot of different emotions. We love so many things throughout the course of our life. Love is experienced and given and received in so many different ways for all manner of experiences, memories, places, things, and people. I think the real message of this song is that love isn’t always an easy thing, but you can’t give up on it. You have to give and receive it. I’m telling myself that in this song. I’m not singing to anyone else. I’m singing to me.” — Andrew Nelson, Great Peacock

Photo credit: Harrison Hudson

LISTEN: Hayes Carll, “Beaumont” (Acoustic)

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Artist: Hayes Carll
Hometown: Woodlands, Texas; currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Beaumont” (Acoustic)
Album: Alone Together Sessions
Release Date: September 4, 2020
Label: Dualtone

In Their Words: “I started out singing on the southeast coast of Texas. Beaumont was just an hour up the road from where I was living. I had a few gigs there. A few friends too. The town just kept finding its way into my work. Its physical proximity to Houston, combined with the cultural differences, made it an interesting origin point for the narrator in this song. He’s in the city but the perspective comes from a simpler place. I’m thinking about all the folks down there right now dealing with yet another hurricane.” — Hayes Carll

Photo credit: David McClister

LISTEN: Mandy Barnett, “A Fool Such as I”

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Artist: Mandy Barnett
Hometown: Crossville, Tennessee
Song: “A Fool Such as I”
Album: A Nashville Songbook
Release Date: August 21, 2020
Label: Melody Place LLC

In Their Words: “The first time I heard “A Fool Such as I,” I was just a kid. Baillie & the Boys had a big hit on it on the ‘80s. Later on, I became familiar with some of the other great versions by Hank Snow and Elvis Presley. Every year we would play the after party at the BMI Awards and would always include this iconic Nashville song in our set list.” — Mandy Barnett

Photo credit: Jiro Schneider

LISTEN: Dianne Davidson, “Sounds of the City”

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Artist: Dianne Davidson
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Sounds Of The City”
Album: Perigon: Full Circle
Release Date: August 28, 2020
Label: Perigon Music

In Their Words: “I was 19 or 20. I was already being a bit beaten up by the business. I spent two weeks on the road with The Moody Blues as opening act while I was touring my third album, Mountain Mama. Sometimes on those quick one-nighter tours, you can lose your bearings and realize you don’t quite know where you are. I was in a high-rise hotel, down below was traffic and noise and people milling about. I felt like a lost soul and wrote the song to center myself again. As fate would have it, I never recorded it until now. I was fortunate enough to have it recorded by Tracy Nelson on her Homemade Songs album in 1978. I was so grateful for her version of it. I knew I needed to do it on this record. It just belonged. The feeling just poured out and I was blessed with the beauty of my friends who played and sang on it. The B3 player, Austin Wireman, wasn’t even born when I wrote it. Full Circle.” — Dianne Davidson

Photo provided by the artist.

BGS 5+5: Arlo McKinley

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Artist: Arlo McKinley
Hometown: Norwood, Ohio
Latest Album: Die Midwestern (Oh Boy Records)
Rejected Band Names: Hatchet Wounds, Black Locust Inn, Thousand Dollar Car

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

With so many influences I could name, I always go back to Blaze Foley. His ability to put so much feeling and emotion into a simple song without ever taking himself so seriously. He always influenced me in my writing, and has been a reminder to always be myself.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I would have to say that performing and knowing that one of my heroes, John Prine, had taken the time out of his day in the middle of the week to come see me play would probably top the list. He came to watch the band play at the High Watt in Nashville. That was a night I’ll never forget.

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

I read a lot when not listening to or writing music. Charles Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson, Greil Marcus, Ted Chiang and many others. Ted Chiang writes very smart, socially-conscious science fiction that really stands out to me. I highly recommend checking him out if you haven’t already.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

That would have to be growing up in the Baptist church. Seeing that music could be so much more to people than just a sound and evoke real emotions in people appealed to me in a way that is hard to put into words. Along with that I grew up constantly surrounded by so many kinds of music that my family would be listening to. Country, punk, bluegrass, folk, metal, hip-hop, etc. It’s the only thing that I ever thought that I should be doing so I’d say the simple answer is, from the moment I discovered music I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

It would be to keep pushing myself to grow as a musician, always pushing myself to never create the same album twice. It would be to also keep creating music that people can correlate to their own lives in one way or another.

Photo credit: David McClister