Tag: premiere

LISTEN: Simon Flory, “Have Your Adventure”

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Artist: Simon Flory
Hometown: Virgie, Indiana
Song: “Have Your Adventure”
Album: Haul These Blues Away
Release Date: February 26, 2021

In Their Words: “‘Have Your Adventure’ was a saying of my late Granny, Mariel Mae Summers Flory of Catlett, Virginia. It was a reminder to get out and see the world, make up my own mind about it, and also her way of saying I could always come home. It was the kind of knowledge gleaned from a life tethered to the seasons on our family farm for 91 years. I wrote this song as a mantra of sorts — we haven’t had a shortage of hardship in America lately, or opportunities for an adventure. My Granny would hope you’ve found your own.” — Simon Flory

Photo credit: Brooks Burris

WATCH: The Wild West, “Better Way”

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Artist: The Wild West*
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Better Way”
Release Date: February 26, 2021
Label: Blackbird Record Label

In Their Words: “When the idea of ‘Better Way’ formed, society was and still is struggling with the differences that divide us. If one does not take the time and compassion to honor differences and look at the commonality that unites us, it’s blinding and tears us apart. Lyrically the idea of being born with love and born without hate is at the root of ‘Better Way.’ Finding the way back to that innocence, compassion and understanding brings a hopeful lens for the future if we can hold onto it and lift each other up. This group of women does exactly that for each other.” — Manda Mosher

*The Wild West: Tawny Ellis (vocals, lap steel, omnichord); Amilia K Spicer (vocals, guitar, mandolin, keys); Pi Jacobs (vocals, guitar); Manda Mosher (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Heather Anne Lomax (vocals, guitar); Deb Morrison (vocals, bass guitar)

Photo credit: Jason Willheim

WATCH: Cristina Vane, “Prayer For the Blind”

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Artist: Cristina Vane
Hometown: Turin, Italy
Song: “Prayer For the Blind”
Album: Nowhere Sounds Lovely
Release Date: April 2, 2021

In Their Words: “‘Prayer For the Blind’ is inspired by a friendly couple I met while camping on the border of Nebraska and Iowa. She told me her mother suffered from dementia, but that it couldn’t help but make her laugh when her mother claimed that her husband was cheating on her, going dancing with a woman with two peg legs, and that she was going to wring her neck. The anecdote got me thinking about how we try and find levity in heavy situations, and also about the bond between mothers and daughters and the intergenerational burdens that can be passed along through them. I wanted to find a tone that matched the difficult nature of these questions, and the lonesome modal banjo seemed perfect for that, paired with Nate Leath’s great fiddling. The issues of motherhood and illness are no new phenomenon, so I thought old time sounds fit the theme well — you can’t beat a fiddle and banjo!” — Cristina Vane

Photo credit: Oceana Colgan
Video credit: Jeremy Harris

WATCH: Raine Hamilton, “Brave Land”

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Artist: Raine Hamilton
Hometown: The flatland prairies of Winnipeg, Manitoba
Song: “Brave Land”
Album: Brave Land

In Their Words: “I am a prairie person, but this album is about the mountains. As a flat lander, I was in a good position to appreciate the contrast of the open, vulnerable spaces of my upbringing, with the courageous, up-reaching lands of the mountains. We don’t have ‘up’ where I come from, so I really had a lot to learn from the mountains, this brave land that connects both the earth and the sky. This song, ‘Brave Land,’ is the title track of the record, and speaks to the courage of these landforms that reach out beyond their earthly world, and the spiritual connection that represents. ‘Brave Land’ is a joyful song that celebrates being alive on the Earth! What an amazing time that can be!” — Raine Hamilton

Photo credit: Megan Steen

LISTEN: Lonesome River Band, “Love Songs”

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Artist: Lonesome River Band
Hometown: Floyd, Virginia
Song: “Love Songs”
Release Date: February 19, 2021
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “‘Love Songs’ is another great song written by our friend Adam Wright. It tells the story of a songwriter who has had bad experiences with love and can’t find ways to be positive about it. The lyrics depict the songwriter’s frustration: ‘They say write in what you know / And all I really know is the losin’ and the leavin and the left.’ Adam puts a comedic twist to selling sad songs, and Brandon Rickman, our guitarist and vocalist, portrays it in his unique way.” — Sammy Shelor, Lonesome River Band

Photo credit: Anthony Ladd

WATCH: Chris DuPont, “Sandpaper Hymn”

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Artist: Chris DuPont
Hometown: Ypsilanti, Michigan
Song: “Sandpaper Hymn”
Album: Floodplains
Release Date: February 5, 2021
Label: Sharehouse Audio

In Their Words: “‘Sandpaper Hymn’ was written during a time of massive loss. At the time, it felt as if the universe was grinding away at me, taking little bits of material off of my heart and body with every stroke. But with every loss, I feel like I have a choice to stretch and grow, or otherwise allow bitterness to overshadow the narrative. If loss is a great ‘sanding,’ perhaps my edges can be made smooth, less jagged, less likely to snag people. I recorded the studio version during the early phases of the 2020 lockdown, giving the themes of loss and isolation a greater meaning during the recording process.” — Chris DuPont

 

LISTEN: Ian Fisher, “Winterwind”

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Artist: Ian Fisher
Hometown: Ste. Genevieve, Missouri
Song: “Winterwind”
Album: American Standards
Release Date: February 19, 2021

In Their Words: “My hometown of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, is a four-and-a-half hour drive from Nashville. My pilgrimages there were always made more romantic by snaking alone in a car down the country roads along the Mississippi. A winter or two ago, I had the radio off listening to the wind rush around with my left hand hanging out of my open window like a wing and this song came to me. I fumbled between the seats and found a broken pen and a crumbled gas receipt. I pressed both firm to my steering wheel and wrote the bulk of this song at 55 mph nearing Paducah.” — Ian Fisher

Photo credit: Andreas Jakwerth

LISTEN: Beth Lee, “Birthday Song”

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Artist: Beth Lee
Hometown: Houston, Texas, now residing in Austin
Song: “Birthday Song”
Album: Waiting on You Tonight
Release Date: February 12, 2021

In Their Words: “I wrote this just before my birthday in 2018 for a songwriter game I am a part of, given the prompt ‘close my eyes.’ I sent it to Vicente Rodriguez, my friend and eventual producer, on his birthday a couple weeks later, and he loved it. It seemed apropos that we ended up booking studio time the week of his and guitarist James DePrato’s birthdays the following year. The song came together quickly in the studio with some minimalistic percussion, James’ guitar magic, some hand claps, and my favorite finishing touch, the glockenspiel. It was the first song we really finished and I remember thinking, yeah, this is going to be a good record.” — Beth Lee

Photo credit: Eryn Brooke

LISTEN: Anya Hinkle (Feat. Graham Sharp), “What’s It Gonna Take”

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Artist: Anya Hinkle featuring Graham Sharp
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “What’s It Gonna Take”
Release Date: February 12, 2021
Label: Organic Records

In Their Words: “On May 26th, 2020, my neighbor Graham Sharp and I had planned to get together to do some songwriting. On that day, we had all woken up to the new reality, the first day without George Floyd in this world. ‘What should we write about?’ we asked each other, and we began to process the horror of his death through a song. We asked, what’s it gonna take? How can we speak to the brokenness of our country and our complicity in that? As we watched the nation convulse, we continued to write, trying to comprehend the pain we saw on display in the soul of our country and in ourselves.

“When we went into the studio to cut the single, we asked a master of the sacred steel, DaShawn Hickman, and gospel singer Wendy Hickman to join us in asking ‘what’s it gonna take?’ Bringing in their voices was an important part of processing the difficult summer, building trust and beauty through song. Only by listening to Black voices are we going to know what it is gonna take. We are still so divided and will remain ignorant until we can absorb what it’s like to be Black in America.” — Anya Hinkle

Photo credit: Rose Kaz

LISTEN: Lindsay Lou, “Bell Suite” & “Alright Sweet”

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Artist: Lindsay Lou
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Songs: “Bell Suite” & “Alright Sweet”
Album: The Suite Sweets
Release Date: February 12, 2021
Label: Alright Sweet Records

In Their Words: “I wrote all the elements of The Suite Sweets during a time when I was practicing with a lot of Immersion Composition Society (ICS) writing lodges. I was dedicating hours to the practice of writing as uninhibitedly as possible, and sometimes I would come out with partial songs that I would go back later to finish. I noticed that there were common themes among them, so I decided to try a smash-up of the two songs that mentioned bells into one song, and a smash-up of the two songs that mentioned being alright into another song, and I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. It seemed that the Suites had a sort of emergent property, which was greater than the sum of their parts. I made these particular tracks as demos, but loved the raw energy so much I knew I wanted to share them with the world when the time was right. There is the deep thread of my personal journey with mental health in ‘Alright Sweet’ and of the complexities of love in ‘Bell Suite,’ so I can’t imagine a better way to bring them to you than with the benefit show I’ve put together for Valentine’s Day weekend in support of Backline: a music industry-specific resource for mental health and well-being.” — Lindsay Lou

Photo credit: Scott Simontacchi