Tag: premiere

LISTEN: Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley, “Born With The Blues”

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Artist: Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Born With The Blues”
Album: World Full of Blues
Release Date: October 4, 2019
Label: Compass Records

In Their Words: “This was a song that we wrote with a good friend of ours, Bobby Starnes, a few years ago and from the moment we finished it we just knew we had to record it on our next album. It always reminds me of a Clint Eastwood Western movie or something … and the percussion and horn section solidify that. This song has been a high point in our set list for a year or so now, as it always gives us some room to improvise and stretch out musically. That’s exactly how we recorded it also … totally live and totally ‘in the moment.’ We thought this was the perfect song to kick off our new album and we hope you all dig it!” — Rob & Trey

Photo credit: Stacie Huckeba

LISTEN: Fireside Collective, “She Was an Angel”

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Artist: Fireside Collective
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “She Was an Angel”
Release Date: September 6, 2019 (single)
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “‘She Was an Angel’ is a song about losing someone you love and seeing them fall into a bad crowd. On the surface, it deals with the emotional repercussions of watching someone sliding down a troubled path. It also explores the feelings of being rejected and left behind, while also hoping for some intervention or circumstance where the one who’s leaving realizes they are on a dark path and turns it around. The music begins as a contemporary bluegrass song which takes a sudden journey into unknown territory during the bridge. The bridge is supposed to serve as the symbolic struggle of the lost lover, and eventually culminates in the realization that it’s time to move on.” — Jesse Iaquinto, vocalist and mandolinist

Photo credit: Heather Hambor

LISTEN: Terri Hendrix, “I Hear Your Song”

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Artist: Terri Hendrix
Hometown: San Marcos, Texas
Song: “I Hear Your Song”
Album: Talk to a Human
Release Date: September 6, 2019

In Their Words: “I first got this idea for ‘I Hear Your Song’ after seeing the animated film Happy Feet. The movie is about the importance of discovering one’s own ‘heart song,’ to attract true love and happiness. But when when Lloyd Maines lost his mother, it took a darker tone. I wrote the chorus for him. I wanted her back. She was a light on this planet and I missed her, too. I finished the verse ‘we see things we can’t unsee’ after I lost my sister. I wanted my last image of her to be of her smiling. If you’ve lost someone, you know what I mean.

“The song is sweet on record, but all in all the subject matter was pretty heartbreaking at that time. Still is. Because of epilepsy, I need someone to drive me from time to time. That’s the verse where someone will ‘take the wheel.’ In the end, I wanted someone to hear my song. And I wanted to listen to theirs. To connect through the shared experience of profound loss. And heal.” — Terri Hendrix

Photo Credit: Kim Maguire

LISTEN: Bill Scorzari, “Treat Me Kind”

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Artist: Bill Scorzari
Hometown: Huntington, New York
Song: “Treat Me Kind”
Album: Now I’m Free
Release Date: September 20, 2019

In Their Words: “Knowing I had a good number of sad/slow songs for this record, I set out to write some uptempo songs to balance things out, and ‘Treat Me Kind’ is the first one that came to me. I could feel some of the old 1970s ‘country rock’ (Marshall Tucker Band, Charlie Daniels Band…) influences from my youth welling up and flowing out and that made writing this song a whole lot of fun. Brent Burke played Dobro on my last record, Through These Waves (2017), and I asked him to come back and play some more for the 2019 album, Now I’m Free. That’s him warming up before the song starts. When the band kicks in, it’s me on acoustic guitar and vocals, Will Kimbrough on slide and electric guitar, Juan Solórzano on electric guitar, Michael Rinne on electric bass, and producer Neilson Hubbard on drums.” — Bill Scorzari

Photo credit: Lauren Johoda

WATCH: Rainy Eyes, “Dreamed About You”

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Artist: Rainy Eyes
Hometown: Bolinas, California
Song: “Dreamed About You”
Album: Moon in the Mirror
Label: Whisper Moon Records

In Their Words: “I met Paul Helzer and Alana Lowe, husband and wife video production dream-team right after recording my album Moon in the Mirror back in 2016 and we decided we needed to make a music video together. Paul wanted to shoot with 8mm film which fit perfectly with the old-timey feel of the tune. We filmed most of it in Inverness, California where I wrote the song [and] most of the album back in 2015 while living in a trailer in the woods.

“I was also spending time on the Point Reyes Peninsula, frolicking on the golden hills, exploring a new found freedom, and swimming in the secret pond on the enchanted Mount Vision. I’m amazed at how well Paul was able to capture not only the visual but also the spiritual element of this song. The song itself is a vision, a dream of true love, of hope, and of connecting with your soul and spirit. It’s about letting go of the past, of sorrow and pain, and waking up to new day, and seeing a glimpse of light at the end of a long dark tunnel.” — Rainy Eyes

Photo credit: Laura Kudritzki Photography

WATCH: Kyle Donovan, “Be a Boy”

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Artist: Kyle Donovan
Hometown: Boulder, Colorado
Song: “Be a Boy”
Album: Then and Now
Release Date: August 30, 2019

In Their Words: There’s a tender sadness that comes along with existential questions; maybe it’s because we’ll never have the answers that we seek. This song is an exploration of those feelings through a retrospective narrative, looking back at a younger version of myself. There’s truth in the song — in that my parents were amazingly supportive and encouraged my curiosity, while also pushing me to enjoy the simplicity of youth. But it also embellishes life’s most difficult moments — to make plain the difficulty of grappling with life, death, and meaning at a young age. My intention in performing and releasing this song is to connect listeners to their own experiences of these deep questions and to remind them of their own innocence at one time or another.” — Kyle Donovan

Photo credit: Gabrielle Halle

LISTEN: Dallas Burrow, “Leaving Colorado”

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Artist: Dallas Burrow
Hometown: New Braunfels, Texas
Song: “Leaving Colorado”
Album: Southern Wind
Release Date: September 20, 2019
Label: Subliminal Hyminal

In Their Words: “I had been on a dry spell for a while, and then out of the blue, I wrote ‘Southern Wind’ (the album’s title track) and ‘Leaving Colorado’ in two days, back to back. While the first was more of a wholesome account of building a family, ‘Leaving Colorado’ on the other hand scratched an itch for adventure and mischief, through the eyes of the mythical wandering frontiersman, in a story that could have just as easily have taken place in the 1800s or today. It’s the timeless tale of love, love lost, adultery, betrayal, murder, and mayhem — soaked in whiskey and smelling of sixgun smoke that is always alive and well in the imagination of the Wild West.” — Dallas Burrow

Photo credit: Lyza Renee

LISTEN: The Grascals, “Drivin’ My Life Away”

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Artist: The Grascals
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Drivin’ My Life Away”
Album: Straighten the Curves
Release Date: August 30, 2019
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “This is one of my favorite country songs from the 1980s. I always wanted to cut it in a bluegrass band because it lends itself well to that style. It’s upbeat, powerful, and tons of fun. ‘Drivin’ My Life Away’ has that funk and groove about it. It’s one of those songs that as soon as you start singing it, people know exactly what it is. It’s infectious.” — Singer and guitarist Chris Davis

Photo credit: Kim Lancaster Brantley

LISTEN: Hot Club of Cowtown, “My Candy”

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Artist: Hot Club of Cowtown
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “My Candy”
Album: Wild Kingdom
Release Date: September 27, 2019
Label: Gold Strike

In Their Words: “‘My Candy’ was inspired by a Coleman Hawkins chord progression that we adapted. I wrote a melody to it that was originally meant for a slower, more sentimental song idea. We cut a rough version and I realized we were not going to be thrilled to play it live, because it was too slow and I wanted something more upbeat. So we picked up the tempo and I wrote a twin part on it. We do it on guitar and violin live, but for the album I twinned it myself on fiddle.

“As for the words, I just assumed this song already existed — an expression of love and appreciation through a candy vocabulary. But in researching different vintage candies, I found that there in fact was no such song that I could find, which was a thrilling discovery. So the idea was to combine these vintage candies, bring them to life as distinct characters, and blend them into this Tin Pan Alley-style melody and changes.

“After I wrote the words I later found out later that ‘jelly bean’ is an actual term that, according to Wikipedia, in the United States “during the 1910s and early 1920s, a “Jellybean” or “Jelly-Bean” was a young man who dressed stylishly but had little else to recommend him, similar to the older terms dandy and fop. F. Scott Fitzgerald published a story about such a character, “The Jelly-Bean,” during 1920.’ Perfect!” — Elana James (singer/songwriter/fiddle player)

Photo credit: Ryan Saul

WATCH: The Chuck Wagon Gang, “Somebody’s Boy”

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Artist: The Chuck Wagon Gang
Hometown: Knoxville, Tennessee
Song: “Somebody’s Boy”
Album: No Depression In Heaven, The Gospel Songs of The Carter Family
Release Date: August 30, 2019
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words:: “The Carter Family began singing about the same time frame as the Chuck Wagon Gang. Both groups shared not only the last name Carter but a very similar style of singing. We felt it would be an honor to put together an album that would pay tribute to their gospel songs. Filming this video at the Carter Family Fold was such an amazing experience. There was something so special about being out there in the humble, yet beautiful location where it all began for the Carter Family.

“The song ‘Somebody’s Boy’ is actually not considered a gospel song, but is more what the old-timers call a heart song. Its message is one that speaks to the desires of a mother’s heart for her wayward son, and, though it dates back to 1894, is as relevant today as when it was penned. The Chuck Wagon Gang has recorded other heart songs over the years, like ‘Church in the Wildwood.’ Our hope is that ‘Somebody’s Boy’ will become as meaningful for our fans!” — Shaye Smith (the alto singer who is also the granddaughter of The Chuck Wagon Gang’s original alto singer)

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither