Tag: premiere

LISTEN: Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass, “Date With an Angel”

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Artist: Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass
Hometown: Landenberg, Pennsylvania
Song: “Date With an Angel”
Album: Bluegrass Troubadour
Release Date: April 23, 2021
Label: Pinecastle Records

In Their Words: “When I heard ‘Date With an Angel’ for the first time, I knew I wanted to record it. Great story songs like this have become synonymous with bluegrass music, because folks can associate the struggles and yearnings in the lyrics to their own lives. I hope you will enjoy this song as much as we do.” — Danny Paisley

Photo courtesy of Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass

LISTEN: Aaron Burdett, “Arlo”

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Artist: Aaron Burdett
Hometown: Saluda, North Carolina
Song: “Arlo”
Release Date: March 19, 2021
Label: Organic Records

In Their Words: “Years ago I used to drive down to play the open mic night at a place called Eddie’s Attic in Georgia. It was a weekly event and I’d go down every six weeks or so. I’d work on my chops and mingle with other writers in one of the premier songwriter venues in the Southeast. Among the semi-regular performers those evenings was a songwriter named Arlo, and although we haven’t seen each other in person for probably 15 years we’ve kept in touch and still talk every week or so. We wax poetic about music and songs and audio gear and guitars or any number of oddball subjects.

“He’s not exactly the character in this song, but he is a character in his own right. Almost every line in the song ‘Arlo’ is something he said to me directly, verbatim. I’ve twisted the meaning and implications of the phrases to suit my vision for the narrator in the song, but the words more or less came from real life, from a real live Arlo, over the past 10 years. We’d talk and afterwards some sentence he said would stick with me so I’d write it down on the ‘Arlo’ sheet. Eventually this song fell out of that collection of phrases and snippets of conversations. Goes to show that you should be careful when you’re being clever around a songwriter, you may hear something you recognize in the next draft.” — Aaron Burdett

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

LISTEN: Will Orchard, “Rita”

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Artist: Will Orchard
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Song: “Rita”
Album: I Reached My Hand Out
Release Date: March 18, 2021
Label: Better Company

In Their Words: “‘Rita’ is a song about the blurred lines between attraction that’s real and long-lasting, and attraction that’s intense and fleeting. To me, it’s about lacking trust in my own impulses, and constantly questioning if those feelings are valid. I wrote this song while on tour on two separate occasions about a year apart, and the distance between those two moments really helped me put what I was feeling in perspective. The contributions of Allen, Jess, James, and Miles really helped bring this song to life and create the dark and the anxious landscape of those emotions.” — Will Orchard

Photo credit: Tim Ryan

LISTEN: Andy Leftwich, “Through the East Gate”

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Artist: Andy Leftwich
Hometown: Carthage, Tennessee
Song: “Through the East Gate”
Release Date: March 19, 2021
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “‘Through the East Gate’ is a tune I wrote with the thought in mind of combining old-style fiddling with the new style of fiddlers that we hear today. I’ve always loved old traditional fiddling, and I wanted to somehow capture both the feel of the old style and combine it with the exciting licks and melodies that the newer style brings. This song reminds me of friends and family coming together to play music and to have a great time! I was so honored to have the legendary Mark Schatz join me on bass and clawhammer banjo. After we cut the track, we couldn’t resist recording a track of him dancing to this one!” — Andy Leftwich

Photo credit: Erick Anderson

WATCH: Tommy Emmanuel, “Flatt Did It” (with Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley)

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Artist: Tommy Emmanuel with Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Flatt Did It”
Album: Accomplice Series Volume 1 With Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley EP
Release Date: May 7, 2021
Label: CGP Sounds

In Their Words: “My feelings about the sessions are they were very spontaneous, and in fact, I suggested ‘Flatt Did It’ and ‘Copper Kettle’ as pieces on the day we recorded them. That’s how it came about. It was very spontaneous. ‘Flatt Did It’ is a tribute to Lester Flatt and some of his classic kind of licks. We had the film crew in there for the day and they just rolled the cameras. We actually just played and ignored them almost.” — Tommy Emmanuel

“Well, it’s always great to work with Tommy. He’s such a great artist, and such a great person. There are always a lot of sparks flying when we play together, and all three of us are into lots of different musical genres, so that’s always fun to explore different musical territories when we get together. This song comes from an album that Chet Atkins did with Doc Watson. I love to hear Tommy and Trey play together. There’s a great respect between the two of them. They are both so brilliant. It’s great to hear them feeding off each other. And this song is just the perfect vehicle for a Dobro, so I’m enjoying the whole thing!” — Rob Ickes

“Yeah, this one was Tommy’s idea, and it’s a tune from the Doc Watson and Chet Atkins duo record. Rob and I both have a bluegrass background, and this song was written with the great bluegrass icon Lester Flatt in mind. (Hence the title.) It really was a natural fit and recording it with Tommy was so much fun! Getting to pick with Tommy and Rob any time is always a blast! Working in the studio with Tommy was so much fun, which I think is evident throughout this EP. The great vibe in the studio that day is prominent in the recordings. It was really just the three of us hanging out and playing tunes…what could be more fun?” — Trey Hensley

Photo credit: Alysse Gafkjen

LISTEN: Claire Kelly, “Sitting Still”

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Artist: Claire Kelly
Hometown: Cary, Illinois; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Sitting Still”
Album: The Scenic Route
Release Date: March 19, 2021

In Their Words: “‘Sitting Still’ was the first song I wrote when the world came to a screeching halt in March of 2020. When the pandemic hit, I hid out with a few Nashville friends on a farmhouse in Tullahoma, Tennessee, to wait out the storm so to speak. We took the days easy out there on the farm: fishing, reading, writing, driving the old Ford truck around the property. Even though our tours had been cancelled and jobs had been lost, we tried to embrace the gift of time we’d be given and find some peace in slowing down.” — Claire Kelly

Photo credit: Jorie Struck

WATCH: Reid Jenkins, “Strange Lover”

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Artist: Reid Jenkins
Hometown: New York City
Song: “Strange Lover”
Album: A Beautiful Start
Release Date: April 23, 2021
Label: Nettwerk

In Their Words: “While most of my songs start while I have an instrument in my hand, ‘Strange Lover’ started as a title that I later put to music. I was struck by the ambiguity in the word ‘strange’ — how it means both unfamiliar and bizarre, and how those two senses of the word have different meanings, but often feel the same when you’re faced with new experiences, such as falling in love. I wanted to write a song that suspended itself in that ambiguity and explore the tension between avoiding the unknown while being drawn in by the thrill of beauty and discovery.

“The lyrics and melody of the verses evolved slowly over the course of a year or so. Sometimes the lines came to me during sessions of very intentional writing; I remember penning ‘Try as I might, I just can’t quite make you make sense’ while sitting in a very idyllic songwriter-y setting — on a bench overlooking the sea on the coast of Maine. Other lines kind of wafted their way out of my subconscious, such as ‘You’re a giant, yet you fit right on the palm of my hand,’ which came to me while walking with my friend at night in Riverside Park in New York. The chorus burst out of me in five minutes about a week before I got into the studio. The process of recording it was similarly organic. Unlike the other three songs on my upcoming EP, I showed up to the studio without much of an arrangement or an agenda for how I wanted it to sound. I let it evolve over the course of the recording process, and I think the final product reflects that process in its hazy and relaxed feeling.” — Reid Jenkins

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

WATCH: Abigail Dowd, “Beautiful Day”

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Artist: Abigail Dowd
Hometown: Carthage & Southern Pines, North Carolina
Song: Beautiful Day
Album: Beautiful Day
Album Release Date: April 23, 2021

In Their Words: “I started writing ‘Beautiful Day’ sitting on our neighbor’s front porch one morning. I was living with them at the time, after our house flooded and my husband and I were waiting for the city to buy and demolish it. He was still living in our house with no heat, taking care of our cat and dog, and it got a little lonely month after month of waking up alone in other people’s houses. It was such a wild experience of not knowing what each day would bring or when the sky would clear, so to speak. As the verses started shaping up, I remembered all of the times in my life that felt dark and uncertain, but were actually necessary parts of growing into better versions of myself. This song became a reminder to enjoy the moment and have faith that it was leading to a brighter day. And now, I look back on those days as gifts of time with friends, with my guitar, and without the distractions that used to keep me from having long stretches to write.” — Abigail Dowd

Photo credit: Todd Turner

LISTEN: The Golden Roses, “When I’m Gone”

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Artist: The Golden Roses
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “When I’m Gone”
Album: Devil’s in the Details
Release Date: March 19, 2021

In Their Words: “Before I moved to Texas, I went to visit the grave of my grandfather. It was apparent no one had been there in years (myself included). I got to thinking about being forgotten after we die. My grandfather was a well-respected bluegrass man (a banjo picker). Unfortunately, he did his drinking Saturday mornings and not Saturday nights. I think he sent that song to me as a parting gift before my move.” — John Mutchler, The Golden Roses

Photo credit: Trista Alley

LISTEN: Jackson Scribner, “County Rd 497”

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Artist: Jackson Scribner
Hometown: Melissa, Texas
Song: “County Rd 497”
Album: Jackson Scribner
Release Date: March 26, 2021
Label: State Fair Records / We Know Better Records

In Their Words: “I wrote the first verse of this song in the front yard of my grandparents’ house on County Rd 497. That’s the place ya go when ya feel unstable. The song is about the things you have when you’re younger that you don’t expect will ever go away, the ‘it’ll be like this forever’ mentality. Then you grow up and life changes, people and places come and go, and you can really only guess what might stay in your life, you’re never really sure.” — Jackson Scribner

Photo credit: Elaine Dela Pena