Tag: premiere

LISTEN: Carley Arrowood, “Goin’ Home Comin’ On”

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Artist: Carley Arrowood
Hometown: Union Mills, North Carolina
Song: “Goin’ Home Comin’ On”
Release Date: August 21, 2020
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “’Goin’ Home Comin’ On’ is one of those sweet, nostalgic tunes that I think a lot of people are going to relate to very easily. I love it because of the happiness and pure joy that overflows from the uptempo and rhythm of it as it talks about getting back to the place where you’ll always belong, and where the love of family will always be. During this time of being at home, it’s so important to remember that. Yes, sometimes it’s hard, but we’re a family and we’re blessed to all be together at this place that makes us complete. It is a precious time and I’m thankful for it, and for all the new memories, laughs, meals, and hugs that have been shared. I’ve missed being on the road playing music and very much look forward to the day that I can do that once again, but there’s still nothing quite like the feeling of a ‘Goin’ Home Comin’ On.'” — Carley Arrowood

Photo credit: Carley Arrowood

LISTEN: Bella White, “All I Gave to You”

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Artist: Bella White
Hometown: Calgary, Alberta, Canada; now living in Nashville
Song: “All I Gave to You”
Album: Just Like Leaving
Release Date: September 25, 2020

In Their Words: “‘All I Gave To You’ feels explicitly gentle to me. However, underneath all that sweetness, there is definitely a tinge of heat. A little fire burning in 18-year-old Bella. I wrote it about being far away from something that I wanted so badly and for all I know, irrationally. A puppy love interest. It talks about wanting to be wanted, or better yet wondering if you’re wanted… a common theme in songwriting. Something I believe to be extremely human. Wanting to feel revered and liked. Especially by those that you’re fond of. In retrospect, I wrote ‘All I Gave To You’ when I was 18 and liked a boy, wasn’t sure if he liked me back, and then tried to be a poet about it.” — Bella White

Photo credit: Sheena Zillinski

LISTEN: Darlingside, “A Light on in the Dark”

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Artist: Darlingside
Hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Song: “A Light on in the Dark”
Album: Fish Pond Fish
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Label: Thirty Tigers

In Their Words: “The lyrics open with the question, ‘Are you swimming with the fish pond fish, looking for oceans in the saltlessness?’ When we wrote that, we were thinking about social atomization and the idea that people become trapped in these false enclosures — fish ponds of our own making. The world outside one’s home or even outside one’s self can become a darkness to be warded off and shut out, and I’ve certainly been guilty of turning inward and making the world even darker as a result. But I’m desperate to break that cycle and I think a lot of people are; a light can’t shine only on itself. When the pandemic started, suddenly that idea of shutting out the world became in one sense much more real, and we really did become trapped in our own physical little fish ponds — but I think it also heightened our desperation and willingness to turn outward, to really connect with one another wholeheartedly.

“The second verse pulls some ideas from a writing exercise in which I was given a prompt to write about being a ‘cellar master’ and so I wrote a sort of open love letter to my plumber, who embodies a number of traits and competences that I lack. The tune itself has been around since 2016 and was originally sung over an arpeggiating line from a little synthesizer called a Septavox. We ended up stripping away that synth part in favor of more traditional instruments, with the exception of one section where Auyon meticulously recreated the synth line using sped-up, plucked violin.” — Dave Senft, Darlingside

Photo credit: Robb Stey

LISTEN: Evelyn Cools, “Yosemite”

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Artist: Evelyn Cools
Hometown: Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
Song: “Yosemite”
Album: Misfit Paradise
Release Date: August 14, 2020
Label: Head Bitch Music

In Their Words: “Although I have lived in cities most of my life, nature has always been my main source of inspiration, grounding, and happiness. Yosemite National Park in particular has had a huge impact on how I perceive the natural world and our role as humans in protecting it. I wrote the song ‘Yosemite’ as a sonic representation of what it feels like to drive through the park, starting out slow and peaceful, and building toward the overwhelming moment when the valley opens up to you as if out of nowhere. It is the truest ode to nature I have written so far, and a conversation starter for the preservation and protection of natural lands. To date, it is one of my favorite songs to listen to, play at home, and perform at concerts, and I hope it resonates with all those who yearn for a deeper connection with our planet.” — Evelyn Cools

Photo credit: Tye Edwards

LISTEN: The Weeping Willows, “Wheels Won’t Roll”

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Artist: The Weeping Willows
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia
Song: “Wheels Won’t Roll”
Release Date: August 14, 2020 (Single)

In Their Words: “Penned in 2019, ‘Wheels Won’t Roll’ is our ‘accidental isolation song’ about feeling stuck in a rut (we owe 2019 an apology!) Early last year we were spinning our wheels, struggling to move forward, crippled by self-doubt and writer’s block. But despite all that, we longed to be back out on the open road… ‘Wheels’ is our folkie homage to the great Australian song, ‘Rock and Roll (I Gave You the Best Years of My Life)’ written by Kevin Johnson, made famous by Mac Davis.” — Laura Coates and Andrew Wrigglesworth, The Weeping Willows

Photo credit: Lachlan Bryan

LISTEN: Half Gringa, “Transitive Property”

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Artist: Half Gringa
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Song: “Transitive Property”
Album: Force to Reckon
Release Date: August 28, 2020

In Their Words: “‘Transitive Property’ is, in my mind, the song most illustrative of the themes of this record. It’s a song about the aftermath of cutting someone out my life that I didn’t know I’d have to. It’s also a reflection of how the state of this country and my own grief felt like places I didn’t recognize or understand. The main guitar riff is a great example of how I write guitar parts. Sam Cantor (the other guitarist in my band) and I play parts that are really intertwined. There isn’t really a lead/backing guitar dynamic when we play; it shifts a lot. I came up with this riff thinking that he could harmonize on it. ‘The Architect’ on the last record, Gruñona, has a guitar part where he did that, and I liked it so much I wanted to do more of that.” — Isabel “Izzy” Olive, Half Gringa

Photo credit: Rachel Winslow

WATCH: Phöenix Lazare, “Warm Soles”

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Artist: Phöenix Lazare
Hometown: Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada
Song: “Warm Soles”
Album: Warm Soles
Release Date: August 7, 2020
Label: Lazare Music Inc.

In Their Words: “‘Warm Soles’ is very dear to my heart. I wrote this song in the heat of the COVID-19 quarantine, inspired by a songwriting challenge I created on Instagram attempting to stay creative. A wedding dress conversation with my grandmother one morning sparked something in me to paint a picture in words of how I imagine my future wedding day — being newly engaged, I had been doing a lot of daydreaming. I wrote the song in one day, recorded the idea with my travelling home studio setup, and sent it to my friend Louis Remenapp in Nashville who co-produced and engineered the track. ‘Warm Soles’ is truly a dedication to my fiancé, who keeps my laughter loud and my feet on the ground.” — Phöenix Lazare

Photo credit: Hownd

LISTEN: Scott Cook, “Rollin’ to You”

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Artist: Scott Cook
Hometown: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Song: “Rollin’ to You”
Album: Tangle of Souls
Release Date: August 7, 2020

In Their Words: “On August 7, I’ll be releasing my seventh album, Tangle of Souls. It comes packaged in a 240-page, clothbound hardcover book, the apotheosis of a long-running, possibly unhealthy obsession with liner notes. This is the first of those songs I wrote — yodeling and laughing to myself in a rented room in Chicago — and it planted the seed of an idea that led to making a string band record. The aesthetic is often the first thing I have in mind, before I even know what the album wants to be about, and this time around I wanted a string band, with a fiddle, because the fiddle is the electric guitar of acoustic music.

“I’d been touring a fair bit in Australia with Liz Frencham, a killer upright bass player with a studio in her backyard, and on one of those tours we got to talking about making a record. I brought over fellow Albertan and longtime collaborator Bramwell Park to play banjo and mandolin, and Liz connected with an Aussie fiddler named Esther Henderson, who I’d never met. I named the band ‘Scott Cook and the She’ll Be Rights’ after an Aussie expression meaning ‘it’ll be OK’ or ‘don’t worry about it.’ (You might say it’s somewhere on the spectrum between nonchalance and negligence.) We arranged the songs along that tour and cut the record at the end of it, then I spent the next year or so writing the liner notes. 🙂 ” — Scott Cook

Photo credit: Kate Baker

LISTEN: Dirk Powell, “I Ain’t Playing Pretty Polly” (with Rhiannon Giddens)

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Artist: Dirk Powell
Hometown: Lafayette, Louisiana
Song: “I Ain’t Playing Pretty Polly” (with Rhiannon Giddens)
Album: When I Wait for You
Release Date: September 4, 2020
Label: Compass Records

In Their Words: “I grew up playing and singing ‘Pretty Polly.’ I was really proud to have learned a unique version of it in the ‘overhand’ banjo style from my grandfather in Kentucky. One evening I was singing it during a soundcheck and heard the words ‘he stabbed her through the heart and her heart’s blood did flow’ coming out of my mouth… and I just stopped cold in the middle of the verse. I thought about my grandmother, my mother, my daughters. I thought about pervasive violence against women and the way men are given the bulk of the story in songs like these, and often some kind of twisted romantic glory or sympathy, and I said to myself, ‘I’m never singing this song again.’ I will not give any more energy to the stories of men who hurt, abuse, and kill women. Period.

“For some people, there are complexities — some say the songs are a needed warning to young people, or just dramatic tales, or that tradition trumps looking at them this way. But, for me… I’m just never singing them again. I’m done. I’ve seen the looks of hurt and confusion on my daughters’ faces when violent words like these are accepted or brushed aside. And I’ve seen fear in my grandmother’s eyes as she gave warnings to my sisters about men. Instead, I choose to sing, as I do here, about women like my Aunt Myrtle and men like my Uncle Clyde, who were together from the 1930s to the 2000s. Their relationship was full of love and sweetness and gratitude and respect. Those are the stories I actually know, from my own life, and those are the stories I’m going to tell.” — Dirk Powell

Photo credit: Joan Baez

LISTEN: Xanthe Alexis, “The Offering”

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Artist: Xanthe Alexis
Hometown: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Song: “The Offering”
Album: The Offering
Release Date: August 21, 2020

In Their Words: “I see ‘The Offering’ as a voice of an omniscient narrator, The Oracle, The Mother. She is beckoning the listener to open. Offering a promise of protection. A presence of the mystical, the benevolent. When I wrote this song, I was in need of guidance and reassurance. These words soothed my heart that is so often straining under the weight of our collective suffering. I hope it does the same for others too.” — Xanthe Alexis

Photo credit: Luigi Scorcia