BGS Long Reads of the Week // April 24

We’ve so enjoyed looking back into the BGS archives with you every week for some of our favorite reporting, videos, interviews, and more. If you haven’t yet, follow our #longreadoftheday series on social media [on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram] and as always, we’ll put all of our picks together right here at the end of each week.

Our long reads this week examine entire careers, dive into different versions of new classic songs, revisit a lost hero, and more.

Glen Hansard: A Career in 12 Songs

We spend a lot of time at BGS immersing ourselves in the music, sounds, and careers of our favorite artists — what can we say, we love a deep dive! For this aural long read choice (if such a thing exists?) we unpack twelve of Glen Hansard’s essential songs from myriad points in his globe-crossing career, from rock bands and movie soundtracks and confessional songwriting and more. [Read the entire list, and listen, too]


Rose Cousins Shares Her Truth More Freely With Bravado

In a strangely prescient interview from late February, Canadian singer/songwriter Rose Cousins offers some insight and wisdom for being alone — the difference between loneliness and solitude, for instance — and for being present in each moment, as well. Their themes she’s explored in-depth in her music-making across the years, but in some newfound ways on her most recent album, Bravado. [Read our interview]


Glen Campbell’s Final Coda: An Interview with Carl Jackson

April 22 marked what would have been Glen Campbell’s 84th birthday. The rhinestone cowboy passed away a short couple of months after releasing his final album, Adiós, in 2017. Campbell’s long-time friend, collaborator, and bandmate Carl Jackson produced the project, and helped coax Campbell through the recording process as Alzheimer’s disease made his singing, playing, and performing increasingly difficult. To honor his birthday, we revisited our conversation with Carl Jackson. [Read


Steve Wariner’s Signature Hit? That’s Tricky

One of Nashville’s good guys, Steve Wariner was inducted into the Musician’s Hall of Fame last year, recognized for his versatility as a lead guitarist, as a sideman, and a singer/songwriter, too. Over more than four decades the Grand Ole Opry member has had numerous charting singles, so we wanted to explore that catalog and ask Wariner himself: “Do you think you have a signature hit?” [Read the interview]


My Love Will Not Change: Four Versions of a Modern Classic

After Americana singer/songwriter Aubrie Sellers gave a flawless, stripped-down performance of this song on our first episode of Whiskey Sour Happy Hour this week we’ve been returning to it over and over! Written by Shawn Camp and Billy Burnette, Del McCoury and Steve Earle have both been involved in recordings of this modern classic over the years. [Check out four different versions]


 

WATCH: Donovan Woods, “Grew Apart”

Artist: Donovan Woods
Hometown: Sarnia, Ontario
Song: “Grew Apart” (single)
Label: Meant Well

In Their Words: “‘Grew Apart’ is about the little lies inside the words we use when we’re hurting after a relationship ends. We wanted to tell a story in the video about men trying to help each other — and fucking it up, but trying. Men seem to think that there’s some physical trial we need to put ourselves through when we’re lovesick — drinking, fighting. The wrongheadedness of that idea is on display here. So often it feels like we can’t escape those breakup clichés. The song and the video are about why that might be.” — Donovan Woods


Photo credit: Joey Senft

WATCH: Wild Rivers, “Kinda Feels Alright”

Artist: Wild Rivers
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
Song: “Kinda Feels Alright”
Album: Songs To Break Up To EP
Release Date: May 1, 2020
Label: Nettwerk

In Their Words: “‘Kinda Feels Alright’ holds an important place on the Songs To Break Up To EP, exploring the positive side of a breakup. It’s also a big part of the personal story of the record. It’s about beginning to accept a breakup and feel alright. Sonically, it feels like a bridge between a classic Wild Rivers song and the new territory we explore with the rest of the EP.” — Khalid Yassein, Wild Rivers


Photo credit: Stefan Kohli

WATCH: Brian Dunne, “Harlem River Drive”

Artist: Brian Dunne
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “Harlem River Drive”
Album: Selling Things
Release Date: April 10. 2020

In Their Words: “‘Harlem River Drive’ is a song about contentment and the things that stand in the way of it. It was born out of this feeling of being forever stuck on the precipice of something big, ultimately driving you to the edge of your sanity. That’s what the song is about to me; missing the present — either in anticipation of the future, or in romanticism of the past — and the consequences that come along with that. But there’s resolution in the song. I do believe there is hope for us yet, or something like that.” — Brian Dunne


Photo credit: Adam Gardner

LISTEN: Josh Ritter, “Heaven Knows”

Artist: Josh Ritter
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “Heaven Knows”
Release Date: February 18, 2020 (single)
Label: Pytheas Recordings/Thirty Tigers

In Their Words: “I was thinking back to some of my favorite concerts over the years, and I realized how many took place in spaces that were special in their own right. Cathedrals, synagogues, strange and storied theaters, each bring a special kind of glow to the performance. I was also feeling the urge to play some of my quieter, more narrative songs that I may not always get the chance to perform during larger rock shows. So I decided to put together a tour that would allow me to play these songs, and some new ones that I’ve been writing, in some of these beautiful spaces. … I wrote ‘Heaven Knows’ during the Gathering sessions and have been holding on to it since. Now, with A Book of Gold Thrown Open shows coming up, I thought it would be fun to share it. Hope you like! Thanks for listening!” — Josh Ritter

WATCH: Samantha Crain, “Garden Dove”

Artist: Samantha Crain
Hometown: Shawnee, Oklahoma
Song: “Garden Dove”
Album: A Small Death
Release Date: July 17, 2020
Label: Ramseur Records/Thirty Tigers and Real Kind Records/Communion

In Their Words: “With the idea in mind of being better for yourself and learning to love yourself, I started thinking about how much easier it was to connect with other people when you’re actually reveling in and enjoying your own company as well. It reminded me of a cult of friendship, sort of building this great web and community around myself. So, of course, I felt like I wanted to make a spooky Oklahoma backroads cult video for the song. I was inspired by Robert Weine and Hitchcock and wanted to make it feel real and high quality but also homemade in a way. I directed the video and did the costumes, my friend Blake Studdard did the camerawork and editing, my friends Nia and Izze (who were also in my ‘An Echo’ video) and Adam acted as my growing cult family. We filmed it on an extremely cold winter night on a dead-end street in Norman, Oklahoma.” — Samantha Crain


Photo credit: Dylan Johnson

LISTEN: Sophie & the Broken Things, “Tornado”

Artist: Sophie & the Broken Things
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Tornado”
Album: Sophie & the Broken Things
Release Date: January 31, 2020
Label: Petaluma Records

In Their Words: “Tornadoes have been occurring in my dreams for as long as I can remember. A few years ago I had one that was really memorable. So I woke up with the first line from this song in my head. Around that time I felt totally uncertain in every aspect of my life and was doubting every decision I was making. Having that kind of uncertainty makes you freeze in how you go about your life and influences every decision you make, and I just remember feeling very immobile.” — Sophie Gault


Photo credit: Annelise Loughead

LISTEN: Sasha K.A, “Tall Grass”

Artist: Sasha K.A
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “Tall Grass”
Album: Family
Release Date: February 21

In Their Words: “‘Tall Grass’ is about a musician friend of mine who got on the wrong path with drugs and alcohol. The ‘tall grass’ is a metaphor for hanging with the wrong crowd and making the wrong decisions. This guy is so naturally talented and so rich in spirit, but was snagged by the vices that haunt the music industry. Really fun experience bringing this song to life with Eric Harrison and Michael Ingber at Studio 601. Eric played bass, Michael played drums, we all produced the song. Incredibly collaborative and creative process.” — Sasha K.A.


Photo credit: Kush Mody

Hawktail, “Padiddle”

Impossible combinations. Hawktail makes them seamlessly, time and again, with their effortless-while-labyrinthine brand of instrumental string band music. Their brand new album, Formations, is their first conceived and executed wholly as a four-piece. Mandolinist Dominick Leslie joined the lineup of Paul Kowert on bass, Brittany Haas on fiddle, and Jordan Tice on guitar after Hawktail developed most of Unless, their debut, as a trio. Confidence and ease permeate the new record, along with a palpable sense of intense listening and a feeling of space, openness, and synchronization. With virtuosos such as these it’s hard to imagine that they could possibly grow closer, become tighter, more enmeshed — but it would seem after little more than a year these four certainly have.

 Tice introduces “Padiddle,” Formations’ penultimate track, combining a bouncy, folk-rock inflected melodic hook with a smoldering, bluegrass-born conviction. An all too rare pairing in string band music, these modern, impetuous musical ideas don’t always emulsify with age-old, dyed-in-the-wool techniques. With each of the six originals on the record (and, of course, the Väsen cover, too) Hawktail are, as always, daringly inventive. But on Formations they’re distinctly proud to be catchy as well, flirting playfully with pop while still constantly reinforcing the deep roots of their collective pedigrees in fiddle music, old-time, bluegrass, and plain ol’ pickin’. An overarching impossible combination coloring the entire collection of tunes must be this: That something so timeless is also remarkably contemporary.

WATCH: Nathaniel Rateliff, “And It’s Still Alright”

Artist: Nathaniel Rateliff
Song: “And It’s Still Alright”
Album: And It’s Still Alright
Release Date: February 14, 2020
Label: Stax Records

In Their Words: “I think I always want to see hope in the darkness, and I like to try to share that. … I always try to write from a perspective of trying to approach everything very honestly, even if it leaves me vulnerable. But overall, it’s almost like I’m a different character when I’m writing for myself. … I think this album is a reminder that we all go through hardship, but regardless of the hardship everything ends up where it’s supposed to. I still continue to live and I still continue to find joy. I think that’s the theme of the record.” — Nathaniel Rateliff


Photo credit: Rett Rogers