Tag: premiere

LISTEN: Fort Frances, “These Lights Will Shine Again”

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Artist: Fort Frances
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Song: “These Lights Will Shine Again”
Album: These Lights Will Shine Again
Release Date: May 22, 2020

In Their Words: “Pressing pause on the world has felt strange and uncertain, but it’s also given people a chance to reflect on what really matters. Instead of focusing on being scared or sad, I’ve been trying to think about what I’ll do and who I’ll see when life starts to move again. I’ve been looking at a map of the world and thinking about all the places I want to go (even if I’m wearing a mask for the journey). This is a positive song meant to dim the volume of the news to put the present — and more importantly, the future — in perspective.” — David McMillin, Fort Frances

Photo credit: Ehud Lazin

LISTEN: Todd Snider, “I Wish We Had Our Time Again” (A Tribute to John Hartford)

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Artist: Todd Snider
Song: “I Wish We Had Our Time Again” (John Hartford cover)
Album: On The Road: A Tribute To John Hartford (to benefit MusiCares)
Release Date: June 26, 2020
Label: LoHi Records

In Their Words: “John Hartford was a leader on three sides of our town — the bluegrass side, the hippie side, and the troubadour side. I can’t think of anyone else like that. He wrote poetry, played banjo, and exuded freedom at as high of a level as you can. I appreciated getting to be the one who sang this song, because it’s exactly where I am in my life. Me and my friends starting singing in the ’90s and made all the music we could, still do, but now we’re kinda grey and rooting for the younger ones, and wishing we had our time again.” — Todd Snider

Photo credit: Rich Chapman

LISTEN: Jarrod Dickenson, “A Cowboy & The Moon”

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Artist: Jarrod Dickenson
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “A Cowboy & The Moon”
Album: Ready the Horses
Release Date: May 22, 2020

In Their Words: “‘A Cowboy & The Moon’ is a song about change. It’s told through the lens of an aging cowboy, as he remembers a time that’s long since passed. It’s a nostalgic look back at what was once here, and now only lives in the memories of those who experienced it. While this concept is presented in a fictional manner through this song, I think it’s something to which we can all relate. The older we get, the more change we see. It’s inevitable. Places, things, and people who were once a part of our lives will change or disappear altogether. That’s the beautiful and tragic thing about life; none of it lasts forever.” — Jarrod Dickenson

Photo credit: Josh Wool

LISTEN: Ben de la Cour, “Shadow Land”

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Artist: Ben de la Cour
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Shadow Land”
Album: Shadow Land
Release Date: May 15, 2020
Label: Flour Sack Cape Records

In Their Words:

“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.”
 — Carl Jung

“All the things we have rejected and pushed deep down into our collective unconscious have risen like leviathans from the deep to destroy us. What we once thought was reality has been transformed into an unrecognizable inversion of what once was. But it was always this way. We couldn’t see it before, but now that we can, we’re all just strangers in this Shadow Land.” — Ben de la Cour

Photo credit: Neilson Hubbard

LISTEN: Gretchen Peters, “Leavin’ Kentucky”

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Artist: Gretchen Peters
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Leavin’ Kentucky”
Album: The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury
Release Date: May 15, 2020
Label: Scarlet Letter Records

In Their Words: “This song was one of the first ones of Mickey’s I ever heard, and the line ‘the road down to Nashville’s like crystal and stone’ is what hooked me. That a country song could wring as much poetry out of a line about asphalt still floors me. This is a song about the agony of love — not just heartbreak, but a hurt so deep that you wish you could cut it out of yourself (‘take a .44 pistol to me’). That was something Newbury did better than anyone — pure pain. We wanted it to feel loose and a little ragged, like a track The Band would’ve cut.” — Gretchen Peters

Photo credit: Gina Binkley

LISTEN: Turkeyfoot, “In the Mountains”

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Artist: Turkeyfoot
Hometown: Denver, Colorado
Song: “In the Mountains”
Album: Promise of Tomorrow
Release Date: June 5, 2020

In Their Words: “‘In the Mountains’ is a song following the old-school bluegrass vein of ‘cabin songs,’ but with a bit more modern feel to the arrangement and dynamics. The song was written by guitar/dobro player Dave Pailet and arranged collaboratively by the members of Turkeyfoot. An isolated cabin buried deep in the winter snow and the surrounding mountainside serve as the backdrop for a story of loss, mourning, and a burning question, forever unanswered. We hope you enjoy this single and invite you to check out our first full-length album released on June 5th!” — Turkeyfoot

Photo credit: Chris Weist of Woodbelly

LISTEN: Siren Songs, “Edelweiss”

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Artist: Siren Songs
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Song: “Edelweiss”
Album: Siren Songs
Release Date: May 15, 2020 (single); May 29, 2020 (album)

In Their Words: “On Patreon, I have a group of patrons that get to pick songs for me to cover. In particular there’s one family, the Pak family, consisting of four sisters, who are all patrons. One of the sisters asked me to do an arrangement of ‘Edelweiss’ to honor their father who had recently passed away — ‘Edelweiss’ was his favorite song. The arrangement is a tribute to him, to honor his memory; it’s an arrangement with his life in mind. I changed the chord progression and the time signature, making the song a bit more emotional.

“His daughter Suzy also told me that she believes the song may have resonated with him so deeply because when he was young his family was forced to flee what is now North Korea, and they never had the opportunity to return to their homeland — it no longer existed. And his first name was Song — so beautiful. Shortly after I finished the arrangement, Song’s wife Mary passed away as well. It just breaks my heart every time we perform this song, so much so that I can’t talk about it until after we’ve finished singing it. When we decided to make ‘Edelweiss’ a part of Siren Songs we added a beautiful vocal harmony and adjusted the guitar arrangement to support those harmonies.” — Jenn Grinels

“The song is from The Sound of Music, a musical which we both love. Deep down we are both musical theatre geeks! Fun fact: Jenn and I both made our stage debuts as Gretl, the youngest Von Trapp, when we were little kids. We both love the musical theatre canon and find so much inspiration in theatre music.” — Merideth Kaye Clark

Photo credit: Chelsea Donoho

WATCH: Anya Hinkle, “Road of the Winds”

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Artist: Anya Hinkle
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “Road of the Winds”
Label: Organic Records

In Their Words: “We are constantly moving closer toward our own homeland, a place we sense is there, somewhere, if we can just pay attention and listen closely to our inner voice. It takes tremendous courage and faith to believe that we can grow to become the person we were meant to be, doing the work we are meant to be doing. We are embarking on a great journey with each sunrise, with each day we are alive. This song helps me feel free to move ahead in new directions with boldness and conviction even though I don’t exactly know where it will all lead. But once you leave the shore you are committed to the journey – there is no turning back.” — Anya Hinkle

Photo credit: Rose Kaz

LISTEN: Colebrook Road, “All You Need To Know (For MJW)”

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Artist: Colebrook Road
Hometown: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Song: “All You Need To Know (For MJW)”
Album: All You Need To Know
Release Date: May 12, 2020 (Single)
Label: Mountain Fever Records

In Their Words: “I wrote this song last summer while I was sitting on a cooler at a bluegrass festival. It was the day before the funeral service for our friend and former banjo player, so the song is in his memory. Recently, it’s taken on a whole new significance with the pandemic we’re going through. Everyone is isolated, all events are cancelled, and there is a lot of fear out there, so we’re in need of human connection more than ever. And that’s the gist of the song, that love between people is all you need to know.” — Jesse Eisenbise, Colebrook Road

Photo courtesy of Mountain Fever Records

LISTEN: Nate Lee, “Love Medicine”

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Artist: Nate Lee
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Love Medicine”
Album: Wings of a Jetliner
Release Date: June 12, 2020
Label: Adverb Records

In Their Words: “’Love Medicine’ embodies all the things I wanted for Wings of a Jetliner — toneful players, exciting rhythm, meaningful lyrics, and songs that are brand new, or presented in a new way. From the beginning stages of planning the album, I wanted the instrumentalists to be the main event, with their solos heavily featured and not just an afterthought. Professor Dan Boner, who produced Wings of a Jetliner, is an accomplished instrumentalist himself and he really helped my vision come alive by creating an environment where everyone was comfortable trying new things and letting their ideas flow. Wyatt Rice, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Ned Luberecki, and Todd Phillips are world-class players, and trading solos with them was thrilling!

“My dear friend Chris Sanders, who wrote ‘Love Medicine,’ has a masterful grasp of chordal harmony and dissonance that perfectly supports the song’s message about addiction. Her harmonic choices, influenced by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, offer a perfect tonal palette for improvisation. Although ‘Love Medicine’ was written about addiction, the lyrics resonate with people who are in all kinds of tough situations. The first line is especially resonant during this time of social distancing: ‘Draw the line, close the door, ain’t gonna cross that threshold no more.'” — Nate Lee

Photo credit: Scott Simontacchi