Tag: premiere

LISTEN: Justin Wade Tam, “Colors of My Mind”

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Artist: Justin Wade Tam
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Colors of My Mind”
Album: A Place to Land (EP)
Release Date: October 25, 2019
Label: Tone Tree

In Their Words: “‘Colors of My Mind’ is in part about how a consistent space can foster creativity and peace. For me, that place is my living room, where I’ve been writing songs for nearly 13 years. It’s a quiet, contemplative room with natural light that shifts nicely throughout the seasons. I’ve written the better part of five albums within those four walls, so I wanted to capture it musically. My friend Jordan Lehning produced this song beautifully and insisted that we record it live. You can hear the reflections of the live studio in the recording, which to me sounds very reminiscent of my living room and the peace of simply sitting quietly and creating.” — Justin Wade Tam

Photo credit: Jacq Justice

LISTEN: Katie Dahl, “Oh Minnesota”

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Artist: Katie Dahl
Hometown: Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin (Door County)
Song: “Oh Minnesota”
Album: Wildwood
Release Date: September 13, 2019
Label: Leaky Boat Records

In Their Words: “I live in Wisconsin now, but I grew up in Minnesota. And for me, the deep-down tug of Minnesota never really goes away, along with so many memories of elementary school and adolescence and family vacations and first loves. When I was a kid in Minnesota, you’d wear your boots on the school bus and bring your shoes along in your backpack, and if you forgot your shoes at home, you’d have to wear your clumpy boots all day, and the school halls would get all full of salt and mud. A lot of little details like that mysteriously found their way into this song.

“I started writing ‘Oh Minnesota’ a few days before I went to Nashville to record my new album, Wildwood, and I was surprised to find myself writing about Minnesota, because I thought this album was about Door County, Wisconsin, where I live now. And it is, in a way: I think ‘Oh Minnesota’ is exploring to what extent we can ever really leave where we came from.” — Katie Dahl

Photo credit: Kelly Avenson

WATCH: Jeremy Garrett, “I Can’t Lay Your Lovin’ Down”

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Artist: Jeremy Garrett
Hometown: Loveland, Colorado
Song: “I Can’t Lay Your Lovin’ Down”
Album: Circles
Label: Organic Records

In Their Words: “‘I Can’t Lay Your Lovin’ Down’ was a song that I co-wrote with Jon Weisberger and Josh Shilling. I just loved the vibe of the tune and how it fit with my style, so I decided to record it on my upcoming solo release, Circles. I blend guitar, mandolin and fiddle with a looper to create this arrangement for the song. Conner Pannell shot the video for me and I love how he captured this song. All of it was shot in the studio, partly while tracking and in-between takes.” — Jeremy Garrett

Photo credit: J.Mimna Photography

LISTEN: Jason Tyler Burton, “Fires of ’88”

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Artist name: Jason Tyler Burton
Hometown: Pinedale, Wyoming
Song: “Fires of ’88”
Album: Kentuckian
Release Date: August 26, 2019

In Their Words: “I worked seasonal jobs for a while as a park ranger and climbing guide. I was living out of a minivan, and that transient lifestyle is appealing in so many ways. When you get tired of someplace or some job, you just go find the next one. So this song is about moving on, letting go, and welcoming change. It’s also about not running from your past or trying to reinvent yourself by moving away, because, in my experience, that doesn’t work.” — Jason Tyler Burton

Photo credit: Erica Chambers

WATCH: Nick Panken, “In the Manner That It Came”

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Artist: Nick Panken (of Spirit Family Reunion)
Hometown: Accord, New York
Song: “In The Manner That It Came”
Album: Consequential Breach

In Their Words: “I wrote this song while I was working as a gardener in lower Manhattan, transplanting flowers from little plastic pots to those small plots of soil that interrupt the pavement. Songs tend to come to me after I’ve spent some time examining my thoughts and then they start to fade into more abstract notions. Gardening presents a lot of time for this kind of activity, and this is the best work I did at that job.

“The chorus seems to be built with salvaged parts from a couple of old gospel songs sung by Mississippi John Hurt and Joseph Spence. As someone who doesn’t intend to preach about spiritual matters, I want the conclusions in my songs to be both vague and meaningful, and ‘receive it in the manner that it came’ felt appropriate along the lines of ‘the answer is blowin’ in the wind.’ The final line I wrote to finish the song was ‘we come so far to be so far gone.'” — Nick Panken

Westerly Sound Archives: Nick Panken “In the Manner That it Came” from Sean W Spellman on Vimeo.

About the video series: The Westerly Sound Archives are a series of videos and recordings by artist/musician Sean W Spellman in which he has invited friends and acquaintances into his spacious studio in Westerly, Rhode Island, for quick, off-the-cuff performances. Spellman has curated a music series, festival, and independent label that crosses the paths of his contemporaries in both the music and visual art community.

LISTEN: Rachel Sumner, “Rocks & Gravel”

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Artist: Rachel Sumner
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Song: “Rocks & Gravel” (Kacy & Clayton cover)
Release Date: August 30, 2019
Label: Sad Luck Dame

In Their Words: “I was so enchanted the first time I saw Saskatchewan duo Kacy & Clayton, I wound up getting tickets to see them the next night as well. I explored their discography and was particularly struck by ‘Rocks & Gravel’ and the natural, timeless quality about it — I was certain it must have been a traditional tune. Nope. Turns out Kacy & Clayton are just that good at tapping into ages’ worth of sorrow and heartbreak and synthesizing it all into modern classics for us to weep along to. For the past few years, I have been performing my own arrangement of ‘Rocks & Gravel’ beside my originals and a handful of other select covers at shows. I recently recorded my version of this song and some of those other covers in my set list rotation and have been releasing them as digital singles throughout the summer. Though this may not be a traditional folk song, I have found from making it my own that it possesses the same durable beauty of tunes that have been passed down for centuries.” — Rachel Sumner

Photo credit: Louise Bichan

WATCH: Michaela Anne, “By Our Design”

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Artist: Michaela Anne
Hometown: A little bit of everywhere – Washington, California, Virginia, Michigan, Italy, and Brooklyn. Currently Nashville.
Song: “By Our Design”
Album: Desert Dove
Release Date: September 27, 2019
Label: Yep Roc Records

In Their Words: “‘By Our Design’ is a reflection on my life… I started it one day at home in Nashville and finished it when I was spending a couple days writing in Santa Barbara between tour dates in California. I’m definitely someone who revels in alone time and was having a couple of those days loving driving up the coast and hiking by myself. I had second-guessed making the trip altogether so in that moment there, I was thinking how lucky I was to get to have that freedom… and most importantly to have a partner that supported living life however we choose to.

“It may not be ‘steady’ or ‘stable’ or financially promising or secure… but every step of the way we’re figuring it out and have a lot of adventures, experiences and creative pursuits that keep us going. Essentially, examining what it is that makes us wealthy in our life on our own terms versus what we’ve learned society might tell us are the markers of a successful life.

“Making this live video was such a wonderful experience. We were able to assemble some of my favorite Nashville musicians: Kristin Weber (my longtime collaborator, string player, BGVs), Aaron Shafer-Haiss (my longtime collaborator/drummer), Juan Solarzano on guitar, Sam Howard on bass, and Will Honaker on keys. We did multiple songs that day and each song the amazing crew at Layman Drug Co. changed the lighting, vibe, mood of the room to emulate the song. There’s this soft-lit glow almost towards the golden hour that felt very easy and fitting to set the tone for the song.” — Michaela Anne

Photo credit: Matt Wignall

LISTEN: Michael Cleveland, ‘Tall Fiddler’

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Artist name: Michael Cleveland
Hometown: Charlestown, Indiana
Album: Tall Fiddler
Release Date: August 23, 2019
Label: Compass Records

In Their Words: “This album has been something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. I’ve been thinking for a while that it would be awesome to have my band, Flamekeeper, collaborate with some of my musical heroes, and just wondered what it would sound like. I knew it was going to be awesome about an hour into the first day in the studio. Tommy Emmanuel came in to record ‘Tall Fiddler’ and about an hour after he got there, we had the track. Also, I had the honor of co-writing a song with Béla Fleck, recording a Memphis rock song that talks about stealing one of Elvis’s Cadillacs… had so much fun along the way. Thanks to everyone who was involved in the making of this album and especially to my co-producers, Jeff White and Sean Sullivan, for making this dream a reality.” — Michael Cleveland

Photo credit: Stacie Huckeba

WATCH: Darrin Bradbury, “Breakfast”

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Artist: Darrin Bradbury
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Breakfast”
Album: Talking Dogs & Atom Bombs
Release Date: September 20, 2019
Label: ANTI- Records

In Their Words: “In an age of exponentially shrinking attention spans, most music we consume (which is an awfully odd term, I mean cancer consumes healthy cells, lions consume zebras, people consume French fries — it’s hideous language that ought to be reconsidered, same goes for the modern use of the word viral)… Anyhow, it’s often reduced to a savvy-click worthy headline followed by a relatable personal anecdote and a hi-res press photo.

“This is not that. This is a song about breakfast and my thoughts while consuming it, including but not limited to: squirrel drama — a civilization of oat-based creatures who meet their untimely demise by the hands of their creator, a few observations about the nature of the modern telephone, a reference to the Death Star and a mostly failed attempt at rhyming the name “Howie” with “Maui” (it, like, only kinda works).

“Honestly, and I mean this sincerely, I thought this is was the kinda sh*t everybody thinks about over breakfast.” — Darrin Bradbury

Photo credit: Danielle Holbert

LISTEN: Callie McCullough, “Five Dollar Pearls”

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Artist: Callie McCullough
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Five Dollar Pearls”
Album: After Midnight
Release Date: Late Fall/Early Winter

In Their Words: “The idea for this song came to me late one night after someone I was dating hesitated to introduce me to his parents… The melody and the second verse spilled out in a matter of seconds but when I sat down about a week later with my songwriting buddy Ryan Sorestad to bring it to life, it became deeper than that.

It’s that secret fear we have all felt; that some part of who you are or where you come from is not good enough, or won’t measure up in the world. I’ve always been the loud, bold girl with a bit of a wild streak and never the ingénue or the sweet, shy, perfect girl. It’s something I’ve struggled with in learning to be myself.

“I fell in love with the song immediately when it was finished and it became the first song I knew I wanted on this album, paving the way for the rest of this music to come alive. Producer Dustin Olyan and I built this song from the ground up in the studio ourselves, trying to stay true to that intimate, broken emotion that it represents, leaving it stripped-down and simple, focusing on that vulnerable feeling, and I’m so excited to send it out into the world.” — Callie McCullough

Photo credit: Chrissy Nix