Tag: premiere

LISTEN: Liv Greene, “Wishing Well”

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Artist: Liv Greene
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Song: “Wishing Well”
Album: Every Bright Penny
Release Date: April 20, 2020 (single), May 8, 2020 (album)

In Their Words: “‘Wishing Well’ is the oldest song on the record. I started writing it in my junior year of high school about the age-old story of moving on, and all the ways heart and mind stay stuck during that process. Of course the story became more real to me as I got older, and I think it resonated even more deeply when that happened. To me, it speaks to that quiet glimmer of hope we hold on to in our mind, sometimes even subconsciously, that things will work out in the end. It’s about how coming to terms with that hope can help you to understand your own feelings, but it’s also about how that hope can hurt you. Sometimes we hold on because we won’t let ourselves let go, and sometimes we do it because we know our story with that person is not finished. This song speaks to that middle ground, and to the process of admitting, to yourself and others, that that’s exactly where you are.” — Liv Greene

Photo credit: Louise Bichan

LISTEN: Brian Wright & The SneakUps, “What You Don’t Know”

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Artist: Brian Wright & The SneakUps
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “What You Don’t Know”
Album: Lapse of Luxury
Release Date: May 8, 2020
Label: Cafe Rooster Records

In Their Words: “‘What You Don’t Know’ was one of three songs written in an afternoon/evening a few days after I got back from a particularly long tour. The other was ‘Heavy Metal Shed Kids’ and the third got chopped up and used for parts. I was nearly finished with LOL (Lapse of Luxury). It needed a simple song to bring it back down to earth. I was burned out. I had taken on too much and couldn’t keep up. You can hear it. Moving too fast and missing out. The song was a way to let the people I loved know I that I knew something had to change. While I was writing it there were people over; I could hear them outside the shed. They’re in the recording if you listen really close. I walked outside and our guests were naked, dancing around a fire pit to something perfect. It was light and free. It was cool. I felt better. I was home and I was lucky again.” — Brian Wright

Photo credit: Stacie Huckeba

LISTEN: The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers, “Leave Town”

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Artist: The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Leave Town”
Album: I Will Rise
Release Date: TBD (2020)

From the Artist: “‘Leave Town’ is an anthem for the brokenhearted. It’s a cathartic crying out for a change. This song is about dealing with the emotional aftermath of a bad breakup and holding onto hope for a new beginning. Steeped in American roots music, the song is built on a foundation of foot stomps, hand claps, and good old-fashioned shouting. The fierce choruses are sung by a full choir. The pedal steel, organ, and 12-string guitars weave themselves into the song and set a backdrop for a mellow lead vocal on the verses. ‘Leave Town’ is about wanting to get away from anything familiar… including oneself.” — Will Wadsworth, The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers

Photo credit: Grant Westhoff

LISTEN: Aaron Burdett, “Dirt Poor”

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Artist: Aaron Burdett
Hometown: Saluda, North Carolina
Song: “Dirt Poor”
Release Date: April 17, 2020 (watch the teaser)
Label: Organic Records

In Their Words: “‘Dirt Poor’ is about nostalgia and hope and the passage of time. We’re all doing the best we can with what we have each day, and trying to look ahead and plan, but for the most part we’re all adding up tiny decisions and moves day to day with the hope that they add up to something we want in the end. My family moved into an old summer cabin in the woods in Saluda in 1979, when I was four and my brother John was a newborn. My brother Joseph was born a few years later. This song is in part about my parents and our family and my experience growing up there, but it’s also about their friends and the community in aggregate. It was a simpler time. Or at least I think it was. That’s another element of this song I hope comes across: our perception and memory of times past. The nostalgia element, if you will.” — Aaron Burdett

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

LISTEN: David Bromberg Band, “Lovin’ of the Game”

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Artist: David Bromberg Band
Hometown: Wilmington, Delaware
Song: “Lovin’ of the Game”
Album: Big Road
Release Date: April 17, 2020
Label: Red House Records

In Their Words: “’Lovin’ of the Game’ was written by Pat and Victoria Garvey. They were on the coffeehouse circuit a little bit before I was, so I never met them or saw them perform. The song, however, was still around. I can’t remember where I first heard it, but I can’t think of another song that says the same thing. It works.” — David Bromberg

Photo credit: Ria Burman

WATCH: Mile Twelve, “Long Done Gone”

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Artist: Mile Twelve
Hometown: Boston, Masschusetts
Song: “Long Done Gone”

In Their Words: “Back in February we had a few days off the road and decided to spend one of them in Brooklyn, New York, playing music and making videos with some friends. We called up Michael Daves, Jacob Jolliff, and Tony Trischka and ended up having this epic afternoon of arranging a few bluegrass standards for eight people to jam on. Things got pretty wacky, including this video, which is a mashup of the bluegrass song ‘Long Gone’ and the fiddle tune ‘Done Gone.’ We decided to try this medley at first because we thought it would be funny but it turned out they’re both in the key of Bb and it ended up working great. Hope you enjoy!” — Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Mile Twelve

Photo credit: Kaitlyn Raitz

WATCH: The Slocan Ramblers, “New Morning”

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Artist: The Slocan Ramblers
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Song: “New Morning”
Album: Queen City Jubilee
Label: SloMusic

In Their Words: “I wrote ‘New Morning’ right after our second album Coffee Creek came out, and it came to me pretty quick. There’s this funny period after you put out an album — a moment of calm and then the crashing realization that it’s on to the next one. It’s that push to get back to work that got me writing again, and this song came out first. I was listening to Béla Fleck’s Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 2 endlessly around that time, so maybe you can find some bits of inspiration in there. Big thanks to Trent Freeman (check out his awesome band The Fretless) for the videography.” — Adrian Gross, The Slocan Ramblers

Photo credit: Jen Squires

LISTEN: Heather Anne Lomax, “Heart Don’t Lie”

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Artist: Heather Anne Lomax
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Heart Don’t Lie”
Album: All This Time
Release Date: May 1, 2020

In Their Words: “This is a song about love and longing. It is a song of yearning and of the unseen ties that bind two souls, regardless of space and time. It’s about ‘memories, pressed between the pages of of my mind.’ I think I wrote this song in ten to fifteen minutes while up late at night, probably around two or three in the morning.” — Heather Anne Lomax

Photo credit: Neil Kremer

LISTEN: James Hyland, “Ghost”

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Artist: James Hyland
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “Ghost”
Album: Western
Release Date: May 1, 2020
Label: James Hyland Music

In Their Words: “‘Ghost’ is about how strong the past can influence our emotions that drive us to make the decisions that shape our future. This song is about writing and creating songs that my dead heroes would enjoy. I imagine they’re in the room with me as I’m writing and if the line isn’t good enough for the imaginary people there in my room, how could I possibly keep it and play it for the people who are alive? Every couplet counts. The character in the song is haunted by their dead heroes, whose unwritten songs manifest in the writings of the one they influence.” — James Hyland

Photo credit: Ty Hudgins

LISTEN: Jeff Crosby, “My Mother’s God”

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Artist: Jeff Crosby
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “My Mother’s God”
Album: North Star
Release Date: April 24, 2020

In Their Words: “I wrote this song with Micky Braun in Boston last year and it ended up on the new Micky and The Motorcars album as well. I’ve never been very religious, but my friend Brian in Idaho sent me the line: ‘I should thank my mother’s god’ and it set the theme for the rest of the song. I’d also been hanging on to the chorus line: ‘Throw your heart in the river and hope it sees the ocean someday’ for a while. Micky came up with some really great lines for both verses and helped me round out the chorus. We probably finished the tune in 10 minutes over a bottle of wine. Lyrically it’s one of my favorite tracks on the album. My favorite songs are always the easiest to write it seems.” — Jeff Crosby

Photo credit: Scott Simontacchi