Artist: Isaiah Breedlove
Hometown: Cashiers, North Carolina
Song: “Save Your Pennies”
Album: Save Your Pennies
Release Date: July 26, 2019
Label: Gold Ship Records
In Their Words: “I wrote this song on an old Kay small body, looking at the big flag on our porch. A friend had told me a few months back, ‘Save your pennies and I’ll take you fishing out west.’ And I had kept that line in my hip pocket since.” — Isaiah Breedlove
Photo credit. Amber Breedlove
Artist: Anthony da Costa
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Shadow Love” (Acoustic)
Album: Shadow Love EP
Release Date: Single – May 31st; EP – June 14th
In Their Words: “This is a song that has followed me around for years. I first wrote this song back in 2015 and have performed it live with my band many times… I always had fun playing it, but never felt like it was all the way there. My friend Ruth Moody (of The Wailin’ Jennys) and I had recently been discussing the possibility of writing songs together. While working on the EP, I decided to send ‘Shadow Love’ to Ruth and asked her to write another verse. She sent me that second verse while on the road, and it haunted me for days afterwards. ‘Maybe I knew you long before I met you / a hologram, a winter mist / Not everything can last forever / Not everything can feel like this.’ The song was done. What was once a loud Weezer-rock shredder became a duet between two loves, two ghosts. I wanted to share this live, acoustic version of the song (featuring Ruth as well as Sam Howard on bass) as a capture of friends sharing a feeling in real time. Enjoy!” — Anthony da Costa
Photo credit: Jacqueline Justice
Artist: Lizzie Weber
Hometown: Seattle, Washington via St. Louis, Missouri
Song: “When You Look at Me”
Release Date: May 31, 2019 (single)
In Their Words: “This song is an intimate reflection on the physical and emotional feelings that arose when I found myself falling in love. When composing it, I wanted that intimacy to be palpable; for it to feel as though it were a poem written from one lover to another. I kept the arrangement simple, leaving space for the vocal to be surrounded by the warm tones of the open tuning on my acoustic guitar and melodic embellishments from piano, strings, and the electric. My hope is that it inspires the listener to reflect on a moment in time when they felt enraptured by another.” — Lizzie Weber
Photo credit: Tony Hammons
Artist: Damn Tall Buildings
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “I’ll Be Getting By”
Album: Don’t Look Down
Release Date: June 7, 2019
In Their Words: “‘I’ll Be Getting By’ harkens to a summer day, almost assuredly finding yourself in a boat on a river. You glance at the wake behind you, unable to prevent memories flooding back from miles upstream. You reach into the water and realize the very same river slipping quickly through your fingers is faithfully carrying you with it. As the river and you barrel forward together, time’ll get you where you’re going whether you think it’s wasted or not.” — Avery ‘Montana’ Ballotta, Damn Tall Buildings
Photo attached: Scott McCormick
Artist: Giri and Uma Peters
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “The Cuckoo”
Album: Origins
Release Date: May 31, 2019
In Their Words: “We first learned this song from Rhiannon Giddens. This song is an old English folk song from a long time ago. We had a chance to hear some earlier versions of the song when visiting the Rinzler Archives at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in 2017. It is so interesting to see how it has evolved. This is our interpretation of ‘The Cuckoo,’ which also happens to be our dog Zoey’s personal favorite song. Zoey has memorized the melody, and comes close to where we are playing with her tail wagging and howls along.” — Giri and Uma Peters
Photo credit: Sarah Hanson
Artist: Mike Frazier
Hometown: Winchester, Virginia
Song: “Save Me”
Album: Where the Valley Kissed the Sky
Release Date: May 31, 2019
Label: Geneva Records
In Their Words: “Writing Where the Valley Kissed the Sky was a departure from my norms in a lot of ways. For starters it was the first time I’d really focused on writing in a narrative style as opposed to being directly autobiographical. ‘Save Me’ is told from the perspective of a character who has just moved back to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley after some time away, and is quickly reimmersed in the desperation plaguing that area and a lot of the country. This leads to an overwhelming plea for help and guidance through tumultuous times. I also really tried to expand things sonically with this record and create a landscape that blended traditional Americana instrumentation with a bit of a modern sound. I think we really found that on ‘Save Me’ especially with the incorporation of more synth and organ than I’d used in the past.” — Mike Frazier
Photo credit: Brett Ballachino
Artist: Andy Thorn
Hometown: Boulder, Colorado
Song: “Thornado”
Album: Frontiers Like These
Release: June 21, 2019
Label: Thornpipe Music
In Their Words: “This tune came from exploring the key of A on banjo with no capo. Playing in A with no capo opens up a lot of different melodic possibilities on banjo and when I found the main riff I started basing a song around it. The tune really comes to life with the tasteful back and forth of Bobby Britt’s fiddle and Andrew Marlin’s mandolin. I love Jon Stickley’s creative use of open strings and harmonics on the jam. And Miles Andrews holds the whole thing together on his gut string bass. At just over six minutes it’s longer than your typical banjo tune, but if you give the whole track a chance it will take you on quite a ride. Enjoy ‘Thornado’!” — Andy Thorn
Photo credit: John Ryan Lockman (Show Love Media)
Artist: Lonesome River Band
Hometown: Floyd, Virginia
Album: Outside Looking In
Release Date: May 24, 2019
Label: Mountain Home Music Company
In Their Words: “We are so excited about this new release! It is a diverse mixture of great songs that we tried to deliver in our traditional, yet edgy approach. We feel there is something here for every listener — without changing our ‘Lonesome River Band approach.’ We hope everyone will enjoy this project as much as we enjoyed recording it.” — Lonesome River Band vocalist/guitarist Brandon Rickman
Photo credit: Anthony Ladd
Artist: Birdie Busch
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Song: “He Was Looking”
Album: If You Swim Far Enough
Release Date: May 24, 2019
Label: Styles Upon Styles
In Their Words: “‘He Was Looking’ was my desire to write a song for a person that was trying to find their own path away from the brokenness of a family. It’s about trying to steady your heart and head, choose your own as family, and move forward. The song kind of floats in that space between the leaving and the arriving elsewhere.” — Birdie Busch
Photo credit: Randy Scott Carroll
Artist: Willard Gayheart
Hometown: Galax, Virginia (born in Hazard, Kentucky)
Song: “Ern & Zorry’s Sneakin’ Bitin’ Dog”
Album: At Home in the Blue Ridge
Release Date: May 24, 2019
Label: Blue Hens Music
In Their Words: “My granddaughter Dori [Freeman] put this on her second album and she likes to joke that even with all the great songs she’s written herself, people always want to hear this one. It’s just a funny song about a couple of bachelors named Ern and Zory Grigbsy who lived down the road from me when I was a kid. They had a store on one side of the road and their house on the other. We had to walk everywhere we went back then as there weren’t many automobiles. So, walking that road past their house, I was always so scared of that dog they had. And I was just thinking about that and decided to write this song. We put that on that first Highlanders record we did with Bobby [Patterson].” — Willard Gayheart
Photo credit: Kristen H Photography
