Tag: premiere

LISTEN: The Felice Brothers, “To-Do List”

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Artist: The Felice Brothers
Hometown: Harlemville, New York
Song: “To-Do List”
Album: From Dreams to Dust
Release Date: September 17, 2021
Label: Yep Roc Records

In Their Words: “The take we chose for this song was the first time we had ever played the song. It had a very loose and playful quality that we liked. We had just learned the chord progression five minutes before playing it. We listened back to more takes but this was the one that had the best feeling. The song was originally a slow waltz with the lyrics: ‘Into the fire that burns them/that’s how the idiots run,’ but I didn’t know where to go from there. I had written down a to-do list on the adjacent page and began to sing it and it seemed to work well with the phrasing. I wrote down many pages of ridiculous things and chopped them up into the melody. This is how the song came into being.” — Ian Felice

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

WATCH: Jamie McDell, “Dream Team”

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Artist: Jamie McDell
Hometown: Mangawhai, New Zealand
Song: “Dream Team”
Album: Jamie McDell (early 2022)
Label: ABC Music (AU/NZ)

In Their Words: “We’d stuck it out for about nine months in Toronto. Coming from the coast of New Zealand, the pull of the ocean and the nature we were used to was becoming too hard to ignore. We were unsettled and uncomfortable, but the opportunities of living in the big city were helping us survive. Rain outside, twelve stories up, we’d finished watching Chernobyl and the bathroom had nice acoustics. I had started to get a little bored with the way I was playing my guitar so I put my capo on the 10th fret and started to pick away to a minor-based, squeaky chord progression. The first verse started to flow and the tales that were coming to mind were inspired by those prices we’re willing to pay for power and possession. I’d noticed ‘Dream Team’ on captions of people’s social media posts and it became relevant to the sentiment in the verses.” — Jamie McDell

Photo credit: Jake Smith

LISTEN: The Way Down Wanderers, “Everything’s Made Out of Sand”

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Artist: The Way Down Wanderers
Hometown: Peoria, Illinois
Song: “Everything’s Made Out of Sand”
Album: More Like Tomorrow
Release Date: September 10, 2021
Label: Soundly Music

In Their Words: “‘Everything’s Made Out of Sand’ was written to create a dialogue on the temporary nature of all things: one day everything here will to turn to dust. I was inspired in the writing process while struggling to feel like I was using my short time here wisely. Humans are connected by our perception of time and the understanding of our own mortality. Through this mutual connection that we share as neighbors, I feel that a certain amount of accountability exists between us to try and live our best life for each other. We captured this tune with the band belting and stomping into a single antique microphone. By recording the song in just one take, it is set aside from the rest of the album and meant to capture the idea behind the track itself in a sonic way: we have a short time to live the most impactful and fulfilling life we can, so let’s try our best.” – Collin Krauss, The Way Down Wanderers

Photo credit: Keith Cotton

LISTEN: AJ Lee & Blue Summit, “Monongah Mine”

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Artist: AJ Lee & Blue Summit
Hometown: The Bay Area
Song: “Monongah Mine”
Album: I’ll Come Back
Release Date: August 20, 2021

In Their Words: “In my teen years, I went through a phase where I would Google historic events and I came across the Monongah mining accident from 1907 in [West] Virginia. There’s a line in the first verse, ‘where darkness down below is lit by wicks,’ that I wrote because an open flame or spark is what most likely caused an explosion, trapping the immigrant miners inside. The second verse starts with ‘wives and daughters and mothers gathered around, to sing to all the souls trapped underground’ — all true, according to the story. The workers’ loved ones tried to offer whatever comfort they could in such a hopeless time. Eventually ‘came the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1910’ to provide thorough investigations in areas including the mining process and safety regulations. I’m no history buff by any means, but this story is so powerful I had to write about it.” — AJ Lee

Photo credit: Hannah Ballinger

LISTEN: Andy Peake, “Hip Replacement”

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Artist: Andy Peake
Hometown: Nashville, TN
Song: “Hip Replacement”
Album: Mood Swings
Release Date: August 20, 2021
Label: Biglittle Records

In Their Words: “A friend of mine was talking about needing a hip replacement and I immediately locked into the double meaning of the term. The music for the song was inspired by an often-heard melodic hook found on some of Miles Davis’ and other popular jazz compositions of the ’50s and ’60s. Lay that hook on top of a salsa rhythm and spice it up with some Middle Eastern modal rock guitar and you have a danceable international flare that is uniquely American. Regarding the lyrics/theme… Sometimes as we get older, we get set in our ways — and may need a jump start. ‘Hip Replacement’ is intended as a poetic, virtual set of jumper cables.” — Andy Peake

Photo credit: Karen Leipziger

LISTEN: Nora Brown, “The Very Day I’m Gone”

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Artist: Nora Brown
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “The Very Day I’m Gone”
Album: Sidetrack My Engine
Release Date: September 24, 2021
Label: Jalopy Records

In Their Words: “‘The Very Day I’m Gone’ is a prime example of the timelessness of old-time music; it has opportunities for a more contemporary sound, but still holds on to its ancient roots. This song comes from ballad singer Addie Graham, an incredible artist from Eastern Kentucky. Me and my fam were listening to this song by Anna & Elizabeth off a tribute record called The Very Day I’m Gone in the car and found the song so mesmerizing we played it again and again.” — Nora Brown

Photo credit: Benton Brown

WATCH: Side Pony, “Bad Ideas”

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Artist: Side Pony
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Bad Ideas”
Album: Lucky Break
Release Date: October 8, 2021
Label: Mule Kick Records

In Their Words: “This tune was actually inspired by a person in our life who had nothing but poor suggestions to offer us and it’s a discussion as to whether the fallout is worth it. But it morphed into a celebration of our own bad ideas, which are decidedly more fun. Except our latest bad idea, which was to make our own Laverne & Shirley-esque sitcom for the music video collaboration with East Nashville filmmaker Scot Sax.” — Alice Wallace, Side Pony

“Yeah, that’s one song I’m glad we got out of idea land and into tangible form. Getting those impulses down on paper and embedded in an Alt-C rock stomp can be better than embedding them into your personal life. If you can’t beat your bad ideas, join ’em!” — Caitlin Cannon, Side Pony

Photo credit: Adrienne Isom

WATCH: Chris Coole, “My Name Is Lie”

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Artist: Chris Coole
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
Song: “My Name Is Lie”
Release Date: August 13, 2021

In Their Words: “I guess this song is a banjo-y meditation on the post-truth era we seem so hopelessly bogged down in. It’s sung from the perspective of the lie itself. I was inspired by the Dock Boggs song, ‘A Conversation With Death’ or ‘O Death,’ where death is given a voice. So, if a lie could talk, ‘My Name Is Lie’ is what I imagine it might be saying in today’s world. I’m not sure how obvious it is, but the last two verses deal with the Pandora’s box that is social media and how it has allowed lies to access ‘light speed’ so to speak.” — Chris Coole

Photo credit: Tyler Knight

WATCH: Tim Easton, “Speed Limit”

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Artist: Tim Easton
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Speed Limit”
Album: You Don’t Really Know Me
Release Date: Aug 27, 2021
Label: Black Mesa Records

In Their Words: “My friend Tree Butcher said the opening line in a sentence and I just wrote it down. It became a song very quickly and it’s the first tune where my daughter helped sort out some lyrics as well. Both my mother and father make an appearance in this one, so the family theme is established further. This is a healing song that is played with a lot of energy to remind you to slow down. The chorus lyric ‘when the pain of staying the same outweighs the strain of making changes’ is an inner rhyme sequence of pain, stay, same, weigh, strain, make, and change — seven rhymes in just 13 words. This is something I learned from listening to hip-hop, or something I was reminded of by listening to hip-hop. ‘The worst enemy I ever had is the one inside my head’ is a notion I got from the poet Gregory Corso who said that the worst critic he ever had was himself.” — Tim Easton

Photo credit: Robby Kline

WATCH: Sean Devine, “Clay Bluffs”

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Artist: Sean Devine
Hometown: Livingston, Montana
Song: “Clay Bluffs”
Album: Here For It All
Release Date: September 3, 2021
Label: Crazy Mountain

In Their Words: “The young woman in this story has some hard choices to make. She already knew that, and then they got harder. This story is not unique to eastern Wyoming; that’s just where I happened to overhear part of it, at a gas station Burger King on a cold January night. I didn’t know these young people, but then again I do. They have been my family and I have been them myself. That’s how I know this girl is going to be ok.” — Sean Devine

Photo credit: John Zumpano