Tag: premiere

LISTEN: Giri and Uma Peters, “The Cuckoo”

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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

LISTEN: Mike Frazier, “Save Me”

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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

LISTEN: Andy Thorn, “Thornado”

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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)

STREAM: Lonesome River Band, ‘Outside Looking In’

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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

LISTEN: Birdie Busch, “He Was Looking”

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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

WATCH: Willard Gayheart, “Ern & Zorry’s Sneakin’ Bitin’ Dog”

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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

WATCH: Heather Maloney, “Oklahoma Lullaby”

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Artist: Heather Maloney
Hometown: Northampton, Massachusetts
Song: “Oklahoma Lullaby”
Album: Soil in the Sky
Release Date: June 14, 2019
Label: Signature Sounds

In Their Words: “‘Oklahoma Lullaby’ was inspired by the Ken Burns documentary, The Dust Bowl — so when I starting working on the lyric video for it, I decided to incorporate some historic footage as a little nod to my inspiration. Digging around in the National Archives, I eventually found the perfect footage to use in the video: The 1936 short documentary film on the Dust Bowl (by director Pare Lorentz) called The Plow That Broke The Plains.

“I filled an old book with green construction paper and green-screened the images below the words to make it a sort of ‘moving picture book.’ At the last minute, I decided to write a quote by 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg inside the first page of the book. (‘I want you to act as if the house was on fire. Because it is.’) I added the quote because, while the song is inspired by an environmental disaster that happened in the past, I wrote the song to point to the environmental disasters we are creating now. Near the end of the Dust Bowl, we took some accountability for what we’d done to the land, changed the way we farmed, and passed legislation that has kept it from happening at that scale for nearly a hundred years. That gave me some hope that we can make change again.

“Fun fact: Jay Ungar wrote and played the theme song in Ken Burns’ PBS series The Civil War. He also plays the fiddle on ‘Oklahoma Lullaby,’ as well as the prelude to the song ‘Porch Story.’ It was incredibly special to me, having his fiddle on this song.” — Heather Maloney

Photo credit: Scott Housley

WATCH: Adam Chaffins, “I’m Over You” (Live From Southern Ground)

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Artist: Adam Chaffins
Hometown: Louisa, Kentucky (now Nashville, TN)
Song: “I’m Over You” Live from Southern Ground
Album: I’m Over You (EP)
Release Date: May 10, 2019
Label: Chaffins Music

In Their Words: “It was a great time being in the same room with all those amazing players, capturing the track on film altogether. Southern Ground Nashville is such a beautiful space to make music in. Studio A’s lively tones and vibe are all on display in the video. I’ve felt Keith Whitley’s imprint my whole life. From growing up in East Kentucky to moving to Nashville, his sound has always been close to me. It’s been a surreal experience sharing my take of ‘I’m Over You’ with the world.” — Adam Chaffins

Photo credit: Ryan Musick

LISTEN: The Small Glories, “Secondhand”

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Artist: The Small Glories
Hometown: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Song: “Secondhand”
Album: Assiniboine & the Red
Release Date: June 28, 2019
Label: Red House Records

In Their Words: “We spend a significant portion of our life out on the road, without our partners, families, or close friends. When we come home we tell stories about our adventures and share all our photos, and everyone seems happy for us. But the reality is that our loved ones want to be in those pictures; they want to be there with us experiencing all these interesting things together. A song written for those we love, dreaming and wishing they could take the plunge and be out on the road with us.” — Cara Luft, The Small Glories

Photo credit: Aaron Ives

WATCH: Brooks Forsyth, “Cast My Dreams to the Wind”

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Artist: Brooks Forsyth
Hometown: Boone, North Carolina
Song: “Cast My Dreams to the Wind”
Album: So Much Beyond Us
Release Date: May 8, 2019
Label: ArenA Recordings

In Their Words: “There was a strange alchemy that brought the project together. And literally, it was a gold mining town! The director, Nigel Dick, told me how many of his videos began from an odd synchronicity of events. A few of us met my producer Buzz Cason in Denver, and we drove down to Victor, hearing two ’90s hits on the radio that Nigel shot the videos for. The first day was more or less a workout, outside shots and carrying guitar walking around. The second was more intimate, performing the song inside a historic building downtown. The majority of the song was recorded in one take, Eamon McLoughlin added strings and I played piano subsequently.” — Brooks Forsyth

Photo credit: EJ Carr