Tag: premiere

LISTEN: Warren Givens, “You’re on My Mind” (Featuring Ivy Givens)

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Artist: Warren Givens
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “You’re on My Mind” (Featuring Ivy Givens)
Album: Rattle the Cages
Release Date: August 7, 2020

In Their Words: “In case it isn’t obvious, this is a good old-fashioned breakup song. I wrote it soon after releasing my first full-length record, when we were touring pretty heavily, about a short-lived fling that turned out to have a pretty lasting impact. Even though the song is about a breakup I went through, my idea at the time was to write a melody that Ivy (my sister) could sing. It was really fun to write something that was totally out of my range and to see how she really brought it to life. This is the only song on the record with someone besides Seth Kauffman (my producer and engineer) and me playing. Ivy flew down from New York and we gathered around one big dynamic mic — old-school bluegrass style. We did guitar, fiddle, and our vocals live, maybe two takes tops, and then Seth added the drums, bass, and electric guitar.” — Warren Givens

Photo credit: West Givens

LISTEN: Kelly Bosworth and Libby Weitnauer, “Phoebe in Her Petticoat”

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Artist: Kelly Bosworth and Libby Weitnauer
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Phoebe in Her Petticoat”
Album: Pocket Full of Candy EP
Release Date: September 4, 2020

In Their Words: “We learned this centuries-old song via the playing of Bruce Greene on River in Time. We were struck by the beauty of his performance and wanted to stay out of the way of the song as much as possible. To capture this, we set it to a simple guitar duet with sparse harmonies that come and go as they please. Traditionally an ‘add-as-you-go nonsense’ song, the version we learned spoke more to stereotypical gender roles than we were comfortable with, so we scrambled some of the words to offset that in our recording. As the rest of the material on the EP developed, we realized a line in the song, ‘pocket full of candy,’ was the perfect descriptor for the sweet, simple, and sad little collection of songs we had put together, and so this became our title track.” – Kelly Bosworth and Libby Weitnauer

Photo credit: Joseph Dejarnette

WATCH: Liz Simmons, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes”

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Artist: Liz Simmons
Hometown: Brattleboro, Vermont
Song: “Who Knows Where the Time Goes”
Album: Poets
Release Date: August 4, 2020 (single)
Label: Morgana Music

In Their Words: “I have known Sandy Denny’s ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes’ (written circa 1967) since I was a teen and I’ve always loved it. It has that elusive poetic appeal in that it manages to say so much with very few words. There’s not much needed to preface it, as it speaks for itself so well in Sandy’s beautiful lyrics. I was raised steeped in the music of the folk revival, roots, and ’60s and ’70s rock ‘n’ roll, so it feels very fitting to have Pete Grant (Grateful Dead, the Incredible String Band) lend his beautiful pedal steel playing to my arrangement of this fittingly timeless song.” — Liz Simmons

Photo credit: Sid Ceaser

LISTEN: Peter Himmelman, “Truth Proffered in a Hard Time”

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Artist: Peter Himmelman
Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Song: “Truth Proffered in a Hard Time”
Album: Press On
Release Date: July 31, 2020
Label: Himmasongs/Six Degrees

In Their Words: “I wrote this just before dinner. I knew my wife was going to be waiting for me in about twenty minutes, therefore I had exactly seventeen minutes to get something down and another three to get back in the house. It would seem that kind of pressure might inhibit the birth of a song, particularly one like this, which is so inherently strange. But sometimes it’s quite the opposite. The time limit often pushes aside the intellect and allows the — whatever you might call it: the subconscious mind, the dreamer’s mind — to take over. I got it all done in that short space, even the melody that comes after each verse. I think we had rice, black beans, and fried eggs that night.” — Peter Himmelman

Photo credit: Jim Vasquez

WATCH: Zoe & Cloyd, “Where Do You Stand”

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Artist: Zoe & Cloyd
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “Where Do You Stand”
Label: Organic Records

In Their Words: “‘Where Do You Stand’ is a commentary on the state of our national discourse. We had the idea for the line, ‘When all that’s left is left, right, or wrong’ in regards to the hyper-polarization we’ve been seeing for a while and we built the song from there. We wanted the song and video to be thought provoking and a call to action. Some people will always attempt to pit us against one another for personal and political gain but we can’t let divisive, inflammatory rhetoric win the day. For us to move forward, we must find common ground on which to build a path toward a just and sustainable future.

“We filmed the video not far from our house in Fairview, North Carolina, outside of Asheville. The old building with the painted tree is right along the road and we thought it was a quirky rural spot that contrasted nicely with the political imagery. The other location was an abandoned ball court that had some interesting delineated grass with a sort of ‘line in the sand’ vibe. It also looked a bit post-apocalyptic. The fence shots represent several concerns such as the border wall, the lack of voice and access in certain communities, and feelings of powerlessness to change the status quo.” — John Cloyd Miller

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

WATCH: Jeremy Squires, “Cast Spells”

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Artist: Jeremy Squires
Hometown: New Bern, North Carolina
Song: “Cast Spells”
Album: Many Moons
Release Date: August 28, 2020
Label: Blackbird Record Label

In Their Words: “When I wrote ‘Cast Spells,’ I had originally intended for it to be an acoustic song and a duet. Over time I felt the song could be opened up more and I started playing around with different soundscapes and textures. Ultimately the song evolved into what it is now. ‘Cast Spells’ is one of my favorite songs on the record and tells a poetic truth from a haunting perspective.” — Jeremy Squires

Photo credit: Shelley Squires

LISTEN: Thin Lear, “Your Family”

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Artist: Thin Lear
Hometown: Queens, New York
Song: “Your Family”
Album: Wooden Cave
Release Date: July 24, 2020
Label: EggHunt Records

In Their Words: “There are certain songs that I need to emotionally warm myself up for before I play them live. I’ll work myself into a particular frame of mind in order to emote properly. But this one is different. With this song, I can pick the opening chord, and suddenly I’m transported back to where I was when I wrote it. It just takes hold of me, and it’s always a pretty cathartic experience.

“The song was written for a family member who was at the end of a long life, and he simply wanted to rejoin his partner in whatever it is that exists beyond here. I think, out of every song I’ve written, this one is probably the most misunderstood. People might hear it and think it’s purely a song of despair, but I really don’t see it in that way. It’s certainly sad, but in the very last stanza, there’s a loving energy there that’s embracing this person at their end.

“When we were recording the song in the studio, with the string quartet and the whole group, I could tell some of the players were getting a bit emotional by the end of it (myself included). And I remember afterwards, some of us were talking about the respective loved ones we’d been thinking about as we were playing. It was a wonderful experience. We only did two takes of it, and this was the first one. It just arrived when we needed it to.” — Thin Lear

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

LISTEN: Sam Rae, “Strangest Thing”

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Artist: Sam Rae
Hometown: Charleston, South Carolina
Song: “Strangest Thing”
Album: Ten Thousand Years
Release Date: August 7, 2020

In Their Words: “The two words life and death live under the same roof, but if they were a texture or a rhythm they would be much different, both with their own groove. The content of this song sifts through my thoughts on life and death and present thought, which weave in and out of the record. ‘Strangest Thing’ is a gesture, like the tipping of one’s hat, prompting us to pull our eyes and minds out from behind the blindfold and remember what’s important.” — Sam Rae

Photo credit: Sophia Lou

WATCH: Cinder Well, “Queen of the Earth, Child of the Skies”

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Artist: Cinder Well
Hometown: Santa Cruz, California, but now Ennis, Ireland
Song: “Queen of the Earth, Child of the Skies”
Album: No Summer
Release Date: July 24, 2020
Label: Free Dirt Records

In Their Words: “This tune is an American version of an Irish set dance called ‘The Blackbird.’ I derived my own interpretation from a 1947 field recording of West Virginian fiddler Eden Hammons. Hammons used an interesting fiddle tuning, DDAD, which I also used here. Erynn Marshall draws the connection between the American and Irish versions of this tune in her book Music in the Air Somewhere: The Shifting Borders of West Virginia’s Fiddle and Song Traditions.

“Being from America and living in Ireland, I have been really interested in fiddle tunes that are found in both traditions. When I found this tune, I set out to reimagine it, led by this idea that if this tune has been making its way around the world for hundreds of years, why not keep interpreting it? I aimed to do this with all the songs, both original and traditional on No Summer, to get to the core of them and express them in the most relevant and honest way possible.

“This video was shot in the back room of Lucas’s bar in Ennis, Ireland, amongst empty tables, but where, in a different time, you have a nice quiet pint next to a fire.” — Cinder Well

Photo credit: Jim Ghedi

LISTEN: Ted Russell Kamp, “Stick With Me”

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Artist: Ted Russell Kamp
Hometown: Originally Hartsdale, New York; now many, many years in Los Angeles
Song: “Stick With Me”
Album: Down in the Den
Release Date: July 24, 2020
Label: PoMo Records

In Their Words: “This is a classic folk song I wrote that was inspired by the music of Nanci Griffith and John Prine. I wrote most of it on my own and then finished it with a good friend and very respected Nashville songwriter Dylan Altman. At the time, we were writing for the same Music Row publisher in Nashville so we did a lot of writing together.

“I married my college sweetheart, but met her just at the tail end of college. Before we knew each other, she had taken a summer-long road trip from New York to Seattle and back with her ex-boyfriend. He didn’t treat her all that well on the trip and later broke her heart. She was very cautious with wanting to start a budding relationship with me when I started falling for her and this song was based on the feelings for her I had at the time. She was running from life and I was trying to find her, comfort her, and let her know I was the one for her. It focuses on the running and our very human attempts to comfort the people we love and our wishes to work through barriers of insecurity and loneliness. Especially in crazy times like these, being compassionate and loving and creating deeper relationships is our way to a better life.

“I recorded this song while I was on tour in Europe six or seven years ago. (It’s one of the oldest songs on the record). The basic tracks were done on a day in between gigs in Finland, and the band on the recording is the band I still play with every time I go back to Finland to tour: Tommi Viksten and Tokela on guitar and Janne Haavisto on drums and percussion. All of these players are deeply respected and talented in their own country and they are on par with some of the best musicians I’ve ever played with. We cut the track live at E Studio in Helsinki. I then sang my final vocal take and added Hammond organ later that day. When I got home to the US, I asked my friend, Eric Heywood (Son Volt, Ray LaMontagne, the Pretenders) to play pedal steel and that’s the recording.” — Ted Russell Kamp

Photo credit: Karman Kruschke