Artist: Chris Castino
Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Song: “Duluth”
Album: Brazil
Release Date: March 13, 2020
In Their Words: “When you come out of a fog of drugs or bad love or any addiction, everything seems raw for a while. I guess the truth is raw sometimes. This song is that time where you beg God not to feel this way again, but this time something feels different. Like a new morning; blurry yet full of hope.” — Chris Castino
Photo credit: Storied Life Pictures
Artist: Darrell Scott
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Fool About You”
Album: Darrell Scott Sings the Blues of Hank Williams
Release Dates: March 13, 2020 (single); April 24, 2020 (album)
Label: Full Light Records / Soundly Music
In Their Words: “I remember this song from early childhood — it was one my dad sang at home. Hank did not write it, but it was fun, it grooves, and it talks about flop-eared mules and hogs rooting under a fence… what more do you want out of a song?” — Darrell Scott
Photo credit: Gabriel Scott
Artist: Justin Moses
Hometown: Madisonville, Tennessee, but currently residing in Nashville
Song: “Fall Like Rain”
Release Date: March 19, 2020 (single)
Label: Mountain Fever Records
In Their Words: “‘Fall Like Rain’ came to me from my friend and former bandmate, Keith Garrett. Several years back I had asked him if he’d written any songs that might work for me. He said that at the time he hadn’t, but there was this Eric Clapton song he’d thought might make a great bluegrass cover. The song really came to life in the studio with Sierra Hull, Bryan Sutton, Barry Bales, Stuart Duncan, and Cody Kilby. It’s a really fun one for me to sing, and I feel like all the musicians brought a lot of energy to it.” — Justin Moses
Photo credit: Kady Carter
Artist: Dietrich Strause
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Song: “Last Man Standing on the Sun”
Album: Last Man Standing on the Sun
Release Date: March 13, 2020
In Their Words: “I once asked my 92-year-old grandfather what he knows now that he wishes he had known when he was my age. He said, ‘I wish I had known that everything is in constant motion and that the fundamental shape of the universe is a wave.’ With that as an impression, I wrote ‘Last Man Standing on the Sun’ looking up at the stars and sky from an island in the middle of a lake, in the middle of the mountains in New Hampshire, thinking about the constant decay and renewal of love, purpose, and nature. I wanted to record this song in particular for this album because it seemed fitting for the constant motion and physical limitations of working on a reel-to-reel tape machine.” — Dietrich Strause
Photo credit: Rose Cousins
Artist: Jack Grelle
Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
Song: “Mess of Love”
Album: If Not Forever
Release Date: April 17, 2020
Label: Jack Grelle Music
In Their Words: “This is a breakup song without any finger-pointing… where two people are both coming to grips with a change in life and trying to adjust to new chapters. I was listening to a lot of Elvis Costello’s early records when I wrote this tune. I wanted to blend classic honky-tonk with power pop elements. Devin Frank, who played bass on the album, came up with the harmony guitar parts on the chorus along with the lead guitar player, Josh Cochran. It added an overall feel that brought all those elements together and really made the song.” — Jack Grelle
Photo credit: Nate Burrell
Artist: Alicia Viani
Hometown: Bend, Oregon
Song: “Tomten Farm”
Album: Alicia Viani
Release Date: April 3, 2020
In Their Words: “I was sitting in my living room on a cold winter morning in Bend with the barely-warm sunlight shining through the windows. It was a home I would soon lose following the breakup with a partner. I didn’t know it at the time but I had a strong intuitive despairing sense about our future as a couple. My partner, a close friend, and I were sitting there in the sunlight and it was a happy peaceful morning, which was becoming rarer.
“I was noodling in the background on my guitar and my friend was talking to my partner about memories from a summer on a farm in Telluride. Her descriptions and imagery were beautiful to me and I just started writing this song live based on the words coming out of her mouth about her time there. Threading the imagery together ‘North of Telluride,’ ‘sunflower mesa,’ ‘the well ran dry.’ I’ve never been to Tomten Farm. I’ve spent a lot of time in Telluride, so I already had a connection to the place. I think the song was sort of an escape fantasy during a difficult, dark time. I took artistic ownership over her story!
“When we did separate, losing him, the home, and my sense of family left me reeling from abrupt changes in day-to-day reality but also reeling from the gut punch of realizing my dreams we worked together on were gone too. What did I believe in building now? Navigating these losses put me at a crossroads. Do I let this devour me? Or do I attempt to stay open to changes and get rocked and hopefully find new solid ground and direction? This song came from my attempt to do the latter. I wrote it over time as I found my way again, found joy in a relationship again with a new lover, and pieced my dreams back together again based on my own desires and beliefs about how I wanted to live. — Alicia Viani
Photo credit: Laura Schneider
Artist: Gabe Lee
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Piece of Your Heart”
Album: Honky Tonk Hell
Release Date: March 13, 2020
Label: Torrez Music Group
In Their Words: “‘Piece of Your Heart’ is a painfully honest goodbye song. The character is backhandedly apologizing to an ex-love, trying to play off a broken heart as something you can simply pawn away. He makes lists of memories, places, and mementos of their relationship serving as pieces of the heartbreak that need to be thrown out in order for them to move on. In the second verse, the ex-lover deals her own way through various forms of coping, and by the third verse the narrator finds himself almost missing what they once had, saying, ‘And I thought you should know that I’ve stitched up my soul and framed it in gold on the wall, so when the train come to town and they tear this place down there’ll be something still left to hang on.’ But sometimes you just have to sell the farm and start over.” — Gabe Lee
Photo credit: Brooke Stevens
Artist: Eliza Gilkyson
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “Beautiful World of Mine”
Album: 2020
Release Date: April 10, 2020
Label: Red House Records
In Their Words: “I wrote this song in Taos, New Mexico just looking out the window of my home there. My son Cisco, who produced the lyric video, wanted to make it seem like a day walking in the mountains, from sunrise to sunset. I think when you feel deeply connected to the natural world then you also become protective of it and willing to fight for it. This song and the video are meant to inspire that commitment to care for and protect our beautiful world.” — Eliza Gilkyson
Photo credit: Rodney Burseil
Artist: Smooth Hound Smith (feat. Connor Vance from Dustbowl Revival)
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Crazy Over You” (Live at Ten Four)
In Their Words: “‘Crazy Over You’ is pretty guileless in its meaning, and remains one of the only true-blue love songs I’ve ever written (no cheeky humor or heartbreak in this one, folks). Over the years it’s been used many times as a first dance song at weddings, and it even got licensed for an adorable love scene in MTV’s The Real World a while back. These days, when we play it in a live setting, we usually do it stripped down, with just two voices and a guitar, so this session was really fun. We built it up a little with some great players (Danny Pratt on drums, and Rhees Williams on bass), and felt especially lucky that Connor Vance from Dustbowl Revival was around Nashville that day and willing to sit in on fiddle and play with us. We filmed and recorded it live at Ten Four Recording Co. here in East Nashville, and it was engineered by stalwart supporter of sonic excellence, Jesse Thompson.” — Zack Smith, Smooth Hound Smith
Photo credit: Adam Murphy
Artist: Kristy Cox
Hometown: Adelaide, Australia originally (now Nashville, TN)
Song: “Finger Picking Good”
Album: No Headlights
Release Date: February 28, 2020
Label: Mountain Fever Records
In Their Words: “Since I was a girl, I have been a huge fan of Tommy Emmanuel. When my co-writers Jerry Salley, Bill Wythe, and I were writing this song we spoke about how great it would be if we could feature Tommy on the different fingerpicking tunes throughout the track, I was so incredibly excited when he said yes. I love this song; it was so much fun to write and even more fun to perform.” — Kristy Cox
Photo credit: Billy Joe and Clockwork Photography
