Tag: pop folk

WATCH: The Sweeplings, “Deep & Wild”

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Artist: The Sweeplings (Cami Bradley and Whitney Dean)
Hometown: Spokane, Washington (Cami) and Huntsville, Alabama (Whitney)
Song: “Deep & Wild”
Album: Losing Ground, Vol. 2
Release Date: September 18, 2020
Label: Nettwerk

In Their Words: “‘Deep & Wild’ is a lighthearted song about entering into the unknown with a willing attitude and a free spirit. We sat down to write this song with a painted picture of each scene in our minds. It shaped itself as we wrote, seamlessly creating a tune about the longing to explore the unknown with someone you love with no other purpose other than to find what’s most freeing. This song in particular fits itself into our EP series, Losing Ground, Vol 1 & 2, as a happy spot of contrast to the cinematic drama of the most of the collection.

“It took us a long time to get to these EPs. We worked tirelessly relationally and musically to make it happen. Stopping and starting, pushing and pulling. Because of that, we lost some ground in our process, but it ultimately brought us to something more magical. These two EPs truly have the grit of our story behind each song. The songs range in sentiment and tone, but all share the same heart. We wanted to create something special with as minimal sonic distractions as possible. We just let the performances and songs speak for themselves, simple and even bare at times. In that, we found our true identity as artists and songwriters.” — Cami Bradley and Whitney Dean, The Sweeplings

Photo credit: Glass Jar Photography

WATCH: Justin Wade Tam, “Paradise”

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Artist: Justin Wade Tam
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee, via San Diego, California
Song: “Paradise”
Release Date: July 24, 2020
Label: Soundly Music

In Their Words: “I wrote this song with my friend Daniel Ellsworth about the subjectivity of paradise. We often get caught up in staring at idealized photographs on social media and forget that there can be beauty in the everyday, no matter where we are. Maybe paradise is more a state of mind than an actual physical location. So when Luke Harvey (Moss Flower Pictures) and I set out to make the music video, we wanted to convey that people all over the world have their own versions of paradise, and that is lovely: so many people and so many paradises. To help with the concept, friends from Chile, France, Iran, and Russia translated the lyrics into their respective languages. I’ve met each of these friends through music and touring over the years, and it’s wonderful to have their friendship reflected in this project. Luke set the translated subtitles and music to old film vignettes, capturing and challenging our perceptions of paradise.” — Justin Wade Tam

Photo credit: Annelise Loughead

LISTEN: Josiah Johnson, “Woman in a Man’s Life”

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Artist: Josiah Johnson
Hometown: San Francisco, California
Song: “Woman in a Man’s Life”
Album: Every Feeling on a Loop
Release Date: September 4, 2020
Label: ANTI- Records

In Their Words: “We are beginning as a culture to reckon with gender roles and expectations, different standards and power dynamics. As someone who can fall back on presenting pretty straight, but has known I’m queer for a long time, I have been in process shedding my internalized homophobia and claiming my sensitivity, nurturing nature, my yin qualities as strengths. So when I sing ‘I’m a woman in a man’s life,’ it holds empowerment for me.

“I’ve learned to love my process. I’ve learned to love when I’ve taken the long way and where I get to admit mistakes. Humility and uncertainty are welcome. Being seen for who I am and where I’m at is my priority. And I am exactly where I am supposed to be. The result of that new courage bears out in how I’m able to be a better friend to the people I love. That’s the gift.” — Josiah Johnson

Photo credit: Sela Shiloni

LISTEN: Josh Ritter, “Time Is Wasting”

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Artist: Josh Ritter
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “Time Is Wasting”
Album: See Here, I Have Built You a Mansion
Release Date: August 28, 2020
Label: Pytheas Recordings

In Their Words: “See Here, I Have Built You a Mansion is a collection of songs and performances that I love from the previous several years. I did the artwork a while back, and the title just popped into my head. I’ve really been missing making music with my band. On record or live, it’s always an adventure.

“I wrote ‘Time Is Wasting’ for a movie. The song didn’t get used, but I ended up thinking about it again as COVID lockdown stretched away in front of us. The rest of the songs soon fell into place behind it. There is a lot of time and distance and farewell on these recordings.” — Josh Ritter

Photo credit: David McClister

LISTEN: Darlingside, “A Light on in the Dark”

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Artist: Darlingside
Hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Song: “A Light on in the Dark”
Album: Fish Pond Fish
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Label: Thirty Tigers

In Their Words: “The lyrics open with the question, ‘Are you swimming with the fish pond fish, looking for oceans in the saltlessness?’ When we wrote that, we were thinking about social atomization and the idea that people become trapped in these false enclosures — fish ponds of our own making. The world outside one’s home or even outside one’s self can become a darkness to be warded off and shut out, and I’ve certainly been guilty of turning inward and making the world even darker as a result. But I’m desperate to break that cycle and I think a lot of people are; a light can’t shine only on itself. When the pandemic started, suddenly that idea of shutting out the world became in one sense much more real, and we really did become trapped in our own physical little fish ponds — but I think it also heightened our desperation and willingness to turn outward, to really connect with one another wholeheartedly.

“The second verse pulls some ideas from a writing exercise in which I was given a prompt to write about being a ‘cellar master’ and so I wrote a sort of open love letter to my plumber, who embodies a number of traits and competences that I lack. The tune itself has been around since 2016 and was originally sung over an arpeggiating line from a little synthesizer called a Septavox. We ended up stripping away that synth part in favor of more traditional instruments, with the exception of one section where Auyon meticulously recreated the synth line using sped-up, plucked violin.” — Dave Senft, Darlingside

Photo credit: Robb Stey

WATCH: Jill Andrews, “The Kids Are Growing Up”

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Artist: Jill Andrews
Hometown: Johnson City, Tennessee; currently Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “The Kids Are Growing Up”
Album: Thirties
Label: Vulture, Vulture / Tone Tree

In Their Words: “I snuck away one day during my daughter’s nap to write ‘The Kids Are Growing Up.’ My son and daughter are seven years apart and everyday in both of them, I saw this theme personified. She was tiny in my arms just like he used to be. I wrote it as a reminder to myself to slow down and try to be present for the important moments, the ones that really matter. The video comes from ten found film reels donated to the Prelinger Archives in San Francisco. Nobody knows who the family is but based on the footage they lived in the St. Louis area. In the video, you see a family go through marriage, birth of their first child, raising children, holidays, marrying off their first child, and then their first grandchild being born. It so perfectly fits the theme of the song. I truly cannot believe that the filmmaker, Nathaniel Maddux, found the footage and that this family kept such amazing archives of their lives. He said he really hopes that someone sees the video and lets us know who they are!” — Jill Andrews

Photo credit: Fairlight Hubbard

LISTEN: Libby Rodenbough, “How Come You Call Me”

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Artist: Libby Rodenbough
Hometown: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Song: “How Come You Call Me”
Album: Spectacle of Love
Release Date: May 29, 2020
Label: Sleepy Cat Records

In Their Words: “I’ve always been able to navigate living pretty easily, both because I ride in the lane reserved for white well-off people, but also because I can handle little boxes better than some. I’m talkative and good at standardized tests and if I go through dark times, I can keep it tamped down. This is a good disposition for survival, but it’s something I’ve always felt self-conscious about, like being good at tolerating the intolerable is the sign of an empty soul, and maybe that’s why I’m drawn to people who don’t fit into this world so well. Everybody I’ve ever dated has been a good guy. This song isn’t about shitty boyfriends; it’s about the way you fall into particular slots in a relationship and rarely come out of them again, so if you happen to be the better navigator, you end up usually leading the way.” — Libby Rodenbough

Photo credit: Courtesy of L. Rodenbough

LISTEN: Zoe Guigueno, “Shoreward”

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Artist: Zoe Guigueno
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “Shoreward”
Album: Secret Admirer
Release Date: June 5, 2020

In Their Words: “This song is about nature stopping us in our tracks; it’s about not taking our resources or way of life for granted. Taylor Ashton wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music — originally it was a commissioned piece for his grandparents, about the fishing industry in Newfoundland. In the current global situation, however, we can ask the same questions: Do we push forward, or do we wait out the storm that forced our boats shoreward?” — Zoe Guigueno

Photo credit: Josh Dolgin

WATCH: Mumford & Sons, “Forever (Garage Version)”

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Artist: Mumford & Sons
Hometown: London, England
Song: “Forever (Garage Version)”
Release Date: May 8, 2020

Editor’s Note: The demo recording heard in this video was performed almost completely live and rediscovered while going through some of the band’s recording archives during the coronavirus lockdown.

In Their Words: “Back in 2013, off the back of touring Sigh No More and Babel we decided we needed to take a bit of a break from the road, catch our breath and regroup. The first time we really hung out to make music together was after a couple months living our lives, and it was in the back garden of a friend’s house deep in Brooklyn. That friend was Aaron Dessner from The National and he had a built a studio in the garage in his garden. Between catching up, eating burritos, and having a couple of drinks, we messed around a bit with some new song ideas. This was one of those moments.

“Many of the songs that began in that garden ended up on Wilder Mind, whereas the later version of this song we saved for Delta. We just thought it’d be fun to share the journey that these songs go on sometimes. Hope everyone is staying safe x” — Mumford & Sons

Photo credit: Gavin Batty

LISTEN: Chelsea Williams, “Cornerstone”

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Artist: Chelsea Williams
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Cornerstone”
Album: Beautiful & Strange
Release Date: May 8, 2020
Label: Blue Élan Records

In Their Words: “Not all of my songs are heartache and drinking songs… just most of them. ‘Cornerstone’ is a real shift from this, it’s more of a ‘heartache gone wrong’ song. It tells the story of a girl who is used to being dealt all the wrong cards. When her luck changes she must learn to trust the universe and trust the new happiness she’s found.” — Chelsea Williams

Photo credit: Piper Ferguson