Tag: North Carolina

LISTEN: Abigail Dowd, “To Have a Friend”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Abigail Dowd
Hometown: Greensboro, North Carolina
Song: “To Have a Friend”
Album: Not What I Seem
Release Date: April 5, 2019

In Their Words: “‘To Have a Friend’ was written for an animated film about a dog that’s being created by Out of Our Minds Animation Studios. After they sent me the script, I knew I wanted to write the song from the dog’s perspective, a song that gives a voice to all the dogs out there who need a home. But, however you hear the song, I think a lot of folks can relate, especially to the importance of companionship.

“Writing this song, I would read through the script and then take my dog, who is a rescue, for a long walk. I call them ‘song walks’ and most of this one was written that way, stopping to jot down lyrics as they came. When we were recording the song, my friend Sam Frazier came to the studio and laid down a beautiful second guitar track. There are a handful of musicians who really strike a chord and raise the bar high for me; Sam is one of those. I love any chance we get to play together and so it was a real honor to have him on this song.” — Abigail Dowd

Photo credit: Todd Turner

LISTEN: Clint Alphin, “Straight to Marrow”

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Artist: Clint Alphin
Hometown: Dunn, North Carolina
Song: “Straight to Marrow”
Album: Straight to Marrow
Release Date: March 29, 2019

In Their Words: “Some songs, lyrics, and experiences emerge from the deepest and indescribable parts of one person and transfer right into those of another. That’s the idea for the theme of this album, and it was a title I had wanted to write a song to for quite some time. I finally found the inspiration for it from a short-film script entitled Lemons that was written and directed by my friend Simon Werdmuller Von Elgg. The song wound up not being right for the movie, but it captures the spirit and theme of the album perfectly.” –Clint Alphin

Photo credit: Simon Werdmuller Von Elgg

LISTEN: Seth Walker, “Hard Road”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Seth Walker
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Hard Road”
Album: Are You Open?
Release Date: February 15, 2019
Label: RPF Records

In Their Words: “I grew up in rural North Carolina on a little dirt road called Busick Quarry Rd. We had 15 acres of land surrounding our log house and I traversed, trampled and pedaled my bike all over that Carolina clay. Out beyond that dirt road was a paved one: Osceola-Ossipee Rd, and we all called it the ‘Hard Road.’ My momma gave strict orders not to go riding my bike up there by myself, as the big farm trucks would howl and unwind up there. I will never forget the day I broke that rule and rolled up on that road for the first time. The long white line, the smell of freedom and subsequent danger. Now I am up here on this hard road chasing the muse, and there is no end in sight. It is all so intoxicating, daunting and strangely comforting.

“Musically I wanted this track to roll like a wheel with little chord change. A rhythmic trance of sorts. The groove has a strong African blues influence. All to set the tone of rolling up on the ‘Hard Road.'” — Seth Walker

Photo credit: Joshua Black Wilkins

LISTEN: Jane Kramer, “Hymn”

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Artist: Jane Kramer
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “Hymn”
Album: Valley of the Bones
Release Date: March 1, 2019

In Their Words: “This song was a kind of ‘homework’ assignment from my songwriting mentor, Mary Gauthier. She looked me in the eye and told me that all of my self-deprecation wasn’t cute or charming and asked me, ‘When are you going to drop the bullsh*t and really own your power and talent?’ She told me that only then would I write the kind of songs that were up to my full potential. She challenged me to write a song from a perspective of self-love. Like, full, real, spiritual and true self-love, and to call it my ‘Hymn,’ whatever that meant to me. I spent a few weeks after that alone, backpacking around Italy with a little travel guitar. I wrote this song in a little mountain village called Vetulonia, where I slept in a little cottage with a hammock for a bed, looking out over mountains that reminded me of home, and it sunk in then that I couldn’t really come home till I came home to myself. So I did.” — Jane Kramer

Photo Credit: Rose Kaz

Artist of the Month: Rhiannon Giddens

Posted on by Amy Reitnouer

Our February AOTM is Rhiannon Giddens: singer, multi-instrumentalist, actor, writer, song collector, activist, and composer.  Giddens has been developing her multi-hyphenated legacy of cross-cultural creativity for over twenty years, from being a founding member of the Grammy-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, to multiple solo albums, to her roles on Broadway and TV’s Nashville, to high-profile collaborations like The New Basement Tapes, and as a creator of new boundary-breaking artistic projects around the world.

Throughout the month, we’ll be bringing you several stories about Rhiannon’s resounding legacy as one of the strongest voices in American roots music today, including a preview of her new collaborative album Song of Our Native Daughters with Leyla McCalla, Amythyst Kiah, and Allison Russell; an in-depth interview about her latest project with the Nashville Ballet and writer Caroline Randall Williams, Lucy Negro Redux; and a recap of her powerful keynote address from the recent Americana Music Association – UK.

“Nobody owns an instrument; no culture gets to put the lockdown on anything.”
-Rhiannon Giddens at AMA-UK, January 2019

For now, get primed for the month ahead with a collection of some of her best work in our new Essential Rhiannon Giddens playlist on Spotify.

 

For our regular readers, you’ll notice a slightly different structure to our AOTM feature.  Starting this month, we’ll be kicking things off with an introduction to the artist and a preview of the month of coverage ahead.

LISTEN: Southern Pine, “Standing Still”

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Artist: Southern Pine
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “Standing Still”
Album: Standing Still
Release Date: January 11, 2019

In Their Words: “I wrote the majority ‘Standing Still’ in a small park in North Hollywood. At the time I was nearing the end of my first several-month national tour and it seemed to burst out of me as a reflection of all that had transpired — a meditation on how the places we go and the things we see transform the people we are. The song sat for a long time, present in my mind, but feeling unfinished. I was ready to give up on it, when I met my friend Meryll Davis. I played her what I had and she instinctively came up with the final verse (my favorite of the song). The song now serves me as a punctuation of sorts, helping to guide from the end of one chapter into the next.” — Zack Kardon

Photo credit: John Shuler

WATCH: Chatham County Line, “I Got You (At the End of the Century)”

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Artist: Chatham County Line
Hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina
Song: “I Got You (At the End of the Century)”
Album: Sharing the Covers
Release Date: March 8, 2019
Label: Yep Roc Records

In Their Words: “This Wilco tune is a prime example of how Sharing the Covers pulls cover songs directly from our set lists through the years. We had performed this tune back in 2005 at the release show celebrating our second album, Route 23, and hadn’t really revisited it since. When we were setting up in the studio to record some new material, the engineer asked us to test the levels on the microphones and somehow this song came out. We are still in awe of the great job Wilco does in creating moments in the studio… they are a great inspiration for any band attempting to weather the years.” — Dave Wilson, Chatham County Line

Editor’s note: Don’t miss Chatham County Line hosting the Late Night Jam presented by BGS on Saturday night at this year’s Merlefest in Wilkesboro, NC April 25-28. Get your tickets now. 

Photo credit: Jeff Fasano

LISTEN: Mickey Galyean & Cullen’s Bridge, “Now I’m Losing You”

Posted on by Editor

Artist name: Mickey Galyean & Cullen’s Bridge
Hometown: Lowgap, North Carolina
Song: “Now I’m Losing You”
Album: Songs from the Blue Ridge
Release Date: November 16, 2018
Label: Rebel Records

In Their Words: “I started writing this song one night while sitting in a snowstorm in my truck. I was thinking about missing my beautiful wife. Then it took on a fictional turn of a ‘lonely wife leaving’ type song. My father, the late Cullen Galyean, used to tell me stories of writing his songs this way. I was listening to a lot of Junior Sisk at the time and kinda kept his groove in the song. Or at least tried to. Junior is a great friend and one of my heroes.” — Mickey Galyean

Photo credit: Richard Boyd

BGS 5+5: The Band of Heathens

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Artist Name: The Band of Heathens
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Latest Album: A Message From The People, Revisited

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

Literature has been a strong influence on music and life in general. I really fell in love with reading at a young age, devouring everything from Inside Pro Football 1985 to The Three Investigators series. I had a great 20th century literature course in high school with a teacher named Chuck Wettergreen, who really encouraged me to fuse my love of playing music and writing songs with literature. We tackled everything from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible to As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Writers such as Kerouac, Burroughs, and Hunter S. Thompson have been life-long companions that have inspired me in the songwriting process.

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

I think I always knew that I wanted to play music. The first time I performed in front of an audience was in pre-school. My teacher somehow got Ella Jenkins (The First-Lady of Children’s Folk Songs) to visit our class and play music for us. I somehow ended up with a guitar in my hand at some point during the presentation and performed for my class. I was hooked from that point on!

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

Paul McCartney + Lebanese Food in Beirut. I am of Lebanese descent and grew up loving the cuisine. Additionally, I’ve never been to Beirut and I understand that’s it’s a magnificent city. Oh yeah, I’ve also never met or dined with Paul McCartney, so it would probably be cool to talk about The Beatles and some other stuff.

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

Independence. The whole idea of making music and living my life as a creative person is based on an idea of freedom. The freedom to be independent to live a life of your choosing; from the hours you keep, to the friends you have, to the way you look and the clothes you wear. I know we live in a country where we are free to pursue anything we want, but I’ve always felt that this lifestyle was a way for me to manifest that idea and truly live it.

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

I’ve been living in Asheville, North Carolina, for about 5 years now and we are sandwiched between two national parks and have access to all sorts of natural wonder and beauty. I really enjoy hiking and exploring in the Pisgah National Forest, it really offers me a great opportunity to deep-breathe some fresh air and escape the everyday sounds of life. I’ve found that it really clears my head and makes room for creating song ideas. So many of my best initial ideas have come while I’ve been walking through and old growth forest, in the morning as the fog is lifting.

WATCH: Songs From The Road Band, “Road to Nowhere”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Songs From The Road Band
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “Road to Nowhere”
Album: Road to Nowhere
Label: Lucks Dumpy Toad Records

In Their Words: “‘Road To Nowhere’ is a song about reconnecting with humanity. Today’s world is filled with digital distractions and all sorts of hustle, bustle, and worry. ‘Road To Nowhere’ will hopefully encourage the listener to get lost on a back road and spend some face to face time with a real person. The basic theme of the song is ‘unplug’ and reconnect with the natural world and the people in it!” – Charles Humphreys III

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither