Tag: premiere

LISTEN: Wood & Wire, “Left My Girl Behind”

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Artist: Wood & Wire
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Single: “Left My Girl Behind”
Release Date: November 15, 2019
Label: The Next Waltz

In Their Words: “This is a traditional tune that we learned from Levon Helm — one of our favorite artists of all time. It’s also called ‘The Girl I Left Behind.’ Outside of bluegrass, we all have different (maybe even more prominent) musical influences. It’s those collective outside influences that really drive our sound. The result is us writing and playing tunes with grooves and feels that people wouldn’t expect from an ensemble like ours. The way Levon did this tune, with a funky backbeat groove, really speaks to us and it’s just a blast to play.

“It’s always our preference to record as organically as possible, working on vibes and performance. We don’t use a click track and we like to move with each other musically. Out at the bunker with Bruce [Robison], the team, and no computers, that’s the only way it goes down. We’ve been performing this one for a while so it was pretty simple — get in there and play the song like we’ve always played it.”

Photo credit: Spencer Peeples

LISTEN: Rosanne Cash, “Time” (Tom Waits Tribute)

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Artist: Rosanne Cash
Hometown: New York City
Song: “Time” (Tom Waits tribute)
Album: Come On Up To The House: Women Sing Waits
Release Date: November 22, 2019
Label: Dualtone Records

In Their Words: “What an honor to sing a song like ‘Time.’ Many years ago, I recorded it just for myself, just for the pleasure of singing those words. Maybe I seeded the notion in the deepest part of the creative ether, the place from where these songs travel through Tom. For whatever reason and from whatever source, I’m just thrilled to be a part of this album. There is no other songwriter in the world, past or future, like Tom Waits.” — Rosanne Cash

Photo credit: Michael Lavine

WATCH: Unspoken Tradition, “Cold Mountain Town”

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Artist: Unspoken Tradition
Hometown: Western North Carolina
Song: “Cold Mountain Town”
Album: Myths We Tell Our Young
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “For the album Myths We Tell Our Young, we explore themes of mountain culture and how it is evolving. There is no better example than Asheville, North Carolina. I’ve lived and played music in this city for over 25 years and watched it change and grow while still holding strong to its rich Appalachian music culture. This song is dedicated to artists that continue to struggle and survive in this ‘Cold Mountain Town.'” — Ty Gilpin, Unspoken Tradition songwriter, mandolin player, and vocalist

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

LISTEN: Chadwick Stokes & the Pintos, “Sand From San Francisco”

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Artist: Chadwick Stokes & The Pintos
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Song: “Sand From San Francisco”
Album: Chadwick Stokes & The Pintos
Release Date: November 15, 2019
Label: Ruff Shod Records/Thirty Tigers

In Their Words: “’Sand From San Francisco’ is about a dejected man leaving San Francisco without his love circa 1964. It was recorded in Boston at Zippah Studios with a Nashville tuned guitar like the one Keith Richards plays on ‘Angie.'” — Chadwick Stokes

Photo credit: Mike Smith

WATCH: The Dales, “Homesick Summertime Anthem”

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Artist: The Dales
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Homesick Summertime Anthem”
Album: Easy Times
Release Date: January 10, 2010

In Their Words: “It’s a song about wishing you had more time to spend with the ones you love. I wrote it from the perspective of our friends and family in the Pacific Northwest. Every year my family and I spend the summer up there. We’ve got friends that we’ve known since first grade. They’re always asking us when we’re moving back… and if you’ve ever been in that area — it’s hard not to take them up on their offer.

“The concept for the video was to have the band surrounded by friends and family. Our videographer, Pat Carew, had the idea and enlisted us to round up friends and neighbors to be in the audience. Funny what happens when you tell folks there will be free wine and cheese… they show up! It was shot in my backyard in Woodland Hills, California. The fire shots and the vintage Rhodes keyboard helped foster the warm, analog vibe we were looking for. We almost had an incident with Jackie’s hair and a tiki torch…” — Drew Lawrence, The Dales

Photo credit: Patrick Carew

LISTEN: Mike Block, “Walls of Time”

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Artist: Mike Block
Hometown: Overland Park, Kansas.
Song: “Walls of Time & Glory in the Meeting House”
Album: Walls of Time
Release Date: November 8, 2019
Label: Bright Shiny Things

In Their Words: “I really enjoyed mashing this bluegrass song up with an old-time fiddle tune. We used sections of the fiddle tune to replace the improvisational breaks in the bluegrass song, and Bruce Molsky even used a special instrument with sympathetic strings to capture an otherworldly sound. He also detuned to play in a different key than usual. My favorite aspect of the arrangement was getting the harmony vocals to toggle back-and-forth between major and minor in the choruses. We tried to give it a dramatic arc by massively re-harmonizing the final chorus before kicking up the tempo for the final fuddle tune break. I hope everyone enjoys this unique approach!” — Mike Block

Photo credit: Michelle Gendreau

LISTEN: Mary Bragg, “Our Lady of the Well”

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Artist: Mary Bragg
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Our Lady of the Well”
Album: Think About It EP
Release Date: March 6, 2020
Label: Mary Bragg Music/Tone Tree Music

In Their Words: “As a writer, one of the things that keeps me sane is that healthy part of the process which is to sometimes get out of your own head and away from your own stories. I’ve started looking for songs to learn that speak to me, and this one in particular, written by the great Jackson Browne, felt painfully timely, as it beautifully expresses some of the feelings I’ve been having about the world we live in, decades after it was written.

“I felt connected to the song after going to Mexico for the first time and experiencing the lovely people and culture there, where, just like in the States, ‘the families work the land as they have always done,’ and ‘your children will be born; you’ll watch them as they run.’ I decided to record it as a creative extension of my new album, Violets as Camouflage, with a similarly simple treatment, musically, with the focus on the story and the voice that’s telling it.” — Mary Bragg

Photo credit: Holly Lowman

LISTEN: Chandler Holt, “Cover More Ground”

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Artist: Chandler Holt
Hometown: Longmont, Colorado
Song: “Cover More Ground”
Album: Cover More Ground
Release Date: November 9, 2019
Label: Robust Records

In Their Words: “This tune just fell into my lap one day. I was messing around with the melody on the guitar and the chorus lyric just popped out of thin air. It took me a while to get the recurring melody to fit for the banjo but once it did the song really started to take shape. Singing while playing banjo and making it cohesive is always a challenge. There’s a reason you don’t see it a whole lot. I love going down that rabbit hole and I’m always surprised where I end up.” — Chandler Holt

Photo credit: Lewis Geyer

LISTEN: Fort Frances, “Desert Hotel”

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Artist: Fort Frances
Hometown: Chicago, Ilinois
Song: “Desert Hotel”
Album: The Front Page of the Modern Age
Release Date: November 8, 2019

In Their Words: “California has been a constant theme in my songwriting, but I’ve tended to focus on the very last mile of the coast of The Golden State. ‘Desert Hotel’ steers away from the Pacific toward desolate, uninterrupted beauty. I wrote this song after my wife and I spent a couple of nights somewhere outside Joshua Tree, dreaming of sending a letter to the rest of the world that we planned to vanish into the sands of southern California. The song is rooted in escaping everything — the city lights, city speeds and city noises — and being someone new. — David McMillin, Fort Frances

Photo credit: Ehud Lazin

WATCH: Jake Morley, “No Drama”

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Artist: Jake Morley
Hometown: London, UK
Song: “No Drama”
Release Date: November 8, 2019
Label: Sandwich Emporium Records

In Their Words: “‘No Drama’ is a little hymn to the pleasure of calm spaces. I was feeling a deep longing for them as my wife was pregnant with our first child and this song just tumbled out. Not that there isn’t a place for conflict and action, but everyone needs somewhere safe to retreat to.

“Risk is what makes live performance so interesting, but it felt like everything just fell into place with this take. John Parker and I have been playing together for many years and I love the understanding we have. Really hoping you like the video and am so grateful to my friends at The Bluegrass Situation for helping me share it.” — Jake Morley

Photo credit: John Williams