Tag: premiere

LISTEN: Eli Lev, “As It Is”

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Artist: Eli Lev
Hometown: Silver Spring, Maryland
Song: “As It Is”
Album: True North
Release Date: June 25, 2021

In Their Words: “‘As It Is’ started to reveal itself halfway through a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat I went on near the Florida coast at the beginning of the year. I experienced silent sunrises over the ocean and brilliant sunsets over the bay that brought on infinite color variations and led me to a unique insight that everything is changing while staying exactly ‘as it is’ in every moment. The melody and words for the song started coming to me very quickly after that, but I couldn’t use my phone or guitar to record them because of the guidelines of the retreat! I only got the chance to write down the lyrics five days later once the retreat concluded, which allowed for some very interesting melodic elements to develop and resulted in one of my most unique songs to date.” — Eli Lev

Photo credit: Taylor Rigg

LISTEN: The Grascals, “Thankful”

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Artist: The Grascals
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Thankful”
Release Date: May 21, 2021
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “The lyrics to our new single are a powerful and wonderful reminder of just how much we all have to be thankful for, and especially now more than ever! I think this song really touched all of our hearts, which made it an easy choice to record, and we’re so glad that the writers — Daryl Mosley and Rick Lang — brought it to The Grascals. ‘Thankful’ makes you pause and reflect on the truly important things in life and where our blessings come from, and I hope all of the listeners will really focus on the words of this song. I know it has helped me keep a brighter disposition while not being able to travel and see my music family and friends — and you just can’t help but smile when you hear it. The Grascals truly are ‘Thankful’!” — John Bryan, singer/guitarist, The Grascals

Photo credit: Kim Lancaster Brantley

LISTEN: Shannon McNally, “This Time”

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Artist: Shannon McNally
Hometown: Long Island, New York
Song: “This Time”
Album: The Waylon Sessions
Release Date: May 28, 2021
Label: Compass Records

In Their Words: “‘This Time’ was written by Waylon. He didn’t write all of his songs. In fact, he probably didn’t write most of them, but the ones he did write were his best. I believe he was talking about a personal relationship with a lover, but as I sing it, I think of it as my relationship to the music business and my personal struggles with it as a woman and an artist. I particularly love the Wurlitzer intro and how the kick drum and acoustic guitar come in sounding like a sunny day. All of Waylon’s grooves remind me of horse gaits. This one is a full canter and the harmonica is the river running beside it. This song is the high point or key to me getting into the headspace that permits me to sing the rest of the album. For me there is relief in its directness. It’s my favorite song on the album.” — Shannon McNally

Photo credit: Alysse Gafkjen

LISTEN: The Reverend Shawn Amos, “Baby Please Don’t Go”

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Artist: The Reverend Shawn Amos
Hometown: California immigrant, Texas resident
Song: “Baby Please Don’t Go”
Album: The Cause of It All
Release Date: May 21, 2021

In Their Words: “‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ is quintessential blues. Ours is an amalgam of various versions, and closest to Muddy Waters’. This is another example of us bringing blues back the parlors of the 1920s and ‘30s. What if Muddy Waters was more of a contemporary of Scott Joplin than Little Walter? It’s proof the blues dresses up nicely while keeping its outsider status.” — The Reverend Shawn Amos

Photo credit: Fred Siegel

LISTEN: Sean McConnell, “Price of Love”

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Artist: Sean McConnell
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Price of Love”
Album: A Horrible Beautiful Dream
Release Date: August 6, 2021
Label: Soundly Music

In Their Words: “‘Price of Love’ is a direct result of a conversation I had with my mother on the phone one day while was driving on tour. I was missing my wife and little girl back at home. We talked about the price your heart pays for giving itself fully to someone. It’s scary, you know? Scary that something could happen to them. That something will eventually happen to all of us. But yet, most of us decide to risk that. To take the jump. To give up your heart completely. It’s heavy shit.” — Sean McConnell

Photo credit: Alexa King

WATCH: The Pine Hill Haints, “Satchel Paige Blues” (Live at Standard Deluxe)

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Artist: The Pine Hill Haints
Hometown: Florence, Alabama
Single: “Satchel Paige Blues” (Live at Standard Deluxe)
Album: The Song Companion of a Lonestar Cowboy
Release Date: May 14, 2021
Label: Single Lock Records

Editor’s Note: The Pine Hill Haints have played every edition of the 280 Boogie, the yearly festival hosted by the music venue Standard Deluxe in Waverly, Alabama. This is the festival’s 20th year.

In Their Words: “Satchel Paige was in it to win it. The scouts were gonna come check him out, and it rained. He was dressed in his uniform holding a ball and glove. He was screaming that he wanted to play on the mound. I can totally identify with that. That’s why I wrote the song. It’s a mean blues number and I wrote it because the Haints totally identify with him.

“Growing up, I heard Auburn had the best punk rock scene in Alabama, so that’s where I went to college. My life changed down there when I was in school. Waverly still has a remnant of that scene, to me. It’s one of the first places I started to come to terms with who I was — my country side — and that has nothing to do with cowboy hats and instrumentation. It has something to do with muddy rivers and eagles, and that’s what country really is. That’s Waverly. We played there around a bonfire long before there was a 280 Boogie. People would dance all night. It was special. It still is. If playing at Standard Deluxe is what ‘making it’ is, that’s all I want. Anything beyond that is extra.” — Jamie Barrier

Photo credit: Abraham Rowe

LISTEN: Reid Zoé, “When I Go”

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Artist: Reid Zoé
Hometown: Toronto, Canada
Song: “When I Go”
Album: Shed My Skin
Release Date: May 14, 2021

In Their Words: “On the surface, ‘When I Go’ is a song about dying — but it’s really all of the questions that come with being a human on this earth. It’s the acceptance that we don’t know everything, and that that’s okay. We are part of everything. It’s about the joy that can come with the realization that ‘nothing really matters. It was written during a time of really potent growth, and I hope it’s as healing for the listener as it has been for me.” — Reid Zoé

Photo credit: Andy Ince

LISTEN: Full Cord, “Right in Step”

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Artist: Full Cord
Hometown: Grand Haven, Michigan
Song: “Right in Step”
Album: Hindsight
Release Date: May 15, 2021

In Their Words: “‘Right in Step’ is lovingly referred to as a perfectly lovely bluegrass song. This song is the debut collaborative song by fiddler Grant Flick and mandolinist Brian Oberlin. The lyric content is love of music & hopefulness, gratification, and that unified feeling that music can deliver. Written in the late summer of 2020, it offers a respite amongst the uncertainty of a pandemic and a place where a musician can always feel at home in the music. Grant came to rehearsal one afternoon with his tenor guitar and a lick that immediately caught the attention of Brian. The one fallback for musicians is to continue doing what we love and that is making great music that makes everyone feel good — by the following afternoon ‘Right in Step’ was a complete song that we are immensely proud of.” — Full Cord

Photo credit: Derek Ketchum, Local Spins

WATCH: Sam Robbins, “Raining Sideways”

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Artist: Sam Robbins
Hometown: Portsmouth, New Hampshire, currently Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Raining Sideways”
Album: Finally Feeling Young
Release Date: May 14, 2021

In Their Words: “‘Raining Sideways’ is one of the songs that means the most to me on the album, and it’s probably the most requested song I get live. It all just sort of came out at once, and it unlocked a new depth in my writing. I had never tried to write a song about my dad, or my relationships to the men in my life. ‘Raining Sideways’ is weird, doesn’t have a real chorus or hook, but that’s what I love about it. It’s just a stream of consciousness song that is one of the most real things I’ve ever written.” — Sam Robbins

Photo credit: Libby Danforth

WATCH: Last Year’s Man, “Still Be Here”

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Artist: Last Year’s Man
Hometown: Eugene, Oregon
Song: “Still Be Here”
Release Date: April 30, 2021

In Their Words: “I wrote this song after a conversation with Ben Allen. Ben is a really fantastic composer and musician who recently started a sync agency in Vancouver, Washington. We talked about me writing something for his company that walked the line between burdened and hopeful and this song is what came almost immediately. I think we’re all eager for life to get back to what it was in some way or another and this is a love song built out of the idea that it will.

“For the video, I spent hours on archive.org not really knowing what I was searching for. It was dumb luck stumbling on these public domain videos from the 1930s and 40s. I started with a clip just to see and the music happened to line up with the dancing for a moment and it felt really beautiful. I pieced it together from there and was surprised by the wide range of emotion I felt from watching people dance in these old movies along with my song. It’s one of those happy accidents.” — Tyler Fortier, Last Year’s Man

Photo credit: Tyler Fortier