Tag: singer songwriter

LISTEN: Josienne Clarke, “Workhorse”

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Artist: Josienne Clarke
Hometown: Isle of Bute, Scotland
Song: “Workhorse”
Album: Onliness (songs of solitude & singularity)
Release Date: April 14, 2023
Label: Corduroy Punk Records

In Their Words: “‘Workhorse’ is essentially a song about self-care in an industry that doesn’t always have a great provision for it. I’d made a lot of changes in my career over the last five years, restructuring to better protect my mental health and my finances. The song is an instruction, reminder and documentation of the journey and those intentions. A lesson I’ve learned in my time being an artist is that people take advantage of us, ultimately, because we let them. We are not responsible for other people’s actions, but I am responsible for what I choose to tolerate and I can learn to take better care of myself. You have a responsibility to love yourself and you can’t love anyone else properly if you don’t. It wasn’t meant to be preachy or sombre so I set it to an upbeat little tune, just my own catchy little mantra as an audio reminder to be good to myself.” — Josienne Clarke

Photo Credit: Alec Bowman_Clarke

LISTEN: Dave Hause, “Tarnish”

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Artist: Dave Hause
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Song: “Tarnish”
Album: Drive It Like It’s Stolen
Release Date: April 28, 2023
Label: Blood Harmony Records/Soundly Music

In Their Words: “My life is getting increasingly less interesting. And that’s by design. You want to be steady, you want to be at a baseball practice or taking your kids to gymnastics or whatever it is. You don’t want to necessarily be staring into the abyss all the time and trying to determine your existential weight. I don’t want my life to become fodder for songs — I want my creativity to be the fodder for songs. I had kids later in life, and it turns out kids ask an awful lot of questions. Sooner or later I’m gonna have some explaining to do for the four decades of living I did before they showed up on the scene, and I sure hope when they hear the answers, they take it easy on me.” — Dave Hause

Press Credit: Jesse DeFlorio

LISTEN: Katie Dahl, “Sacristy”

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Artist: Katie Dahl
Hometown: Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin
Song: “Sacristy”
Album: Seven Stones
Release Date: June 2, 2023
Label: Leaky Boat Records

In Their Words: “I grew up as a queer kid in a very Baptist family — I am the daughter, granddaughter, and niece of Baptist pastors, seminary professors, and missionaries. I was deeply involved in my church during high school, when I started to feel my queerness more fully. There were so many dissonant moments — like the deep crush I had on my church camp counselor, and the strange longing I felt when I heard her chapel sermon about ‘the evils of homosexuality.’ When I went to college and began to explore who I really was, it dawned on me that I wasn’t the only queer kid in my church youth group. I wished we had known about one another in high school — we might not have felt so alone.

“I wrote ‘Sacristy’ as a fable, imagining what life could have been like if we had been given the grace and the space to help each other along, and celebrating the ‘water from our own well’ that we eventually found anyway. I love what Julie Wolf did in producing this song: how triumphant and grounded the bass and drums are; how Julie’s organ and piano parts soar; the way the mandola, banjo, and fiddle keep the song rolling; and the quirky, unexpected background vocals by Nini Camps and Vicki Randle. Plus, we had a really fun time recording the hand claps!” — Katie Dahl

Photo Credit: Kelly Nicolaisen

WATCH: The Watson Twins, “The Palace”

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Artist: The Watson Twins
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky; now Nashville
Song: “The Palace”
Album: Holler
Release Date: June 23, 2023
Label: Bloodshot Records

In Their Words: “This song is one of the few co-writes on the album and it came together after we ran into our friend Jacob Sooter (writer/producer) in East Nashville. He suggested we write together and invited Brian Elmquist (The Lone Bellow) to join the session. We spent the afternoon laughing and writing … which set the tone for the song. Leigh had gone to the Nashville Palace the night before we all got together and the iconic honky-tonk was the perfect inspiration to build the scene for the queen of broken hearts. Working in the studio with Butch Walker and our touring band really brought the song to life. You can feel the energy of everyone playing LIVE in the room.

“From concept to creation, ‘The Palace’ video came together in such an organic way. Doors kept opening and we kept saying ‘YES!’ We had been tossing around a video idea that featured Dolly impersonators but knew that would be really hard to pull off in an authentic way. As luck would have it, our friend and fellow Kentuckian, Meghan Love, hosts a Dolly look-alike contest every year at her restaurant Mable’s Smokehouse in Brooklyn. She offered to let us film at the 6th annual contest and the Nashville production crew, Farmuse, jumped on board to bring our ‘Dolly Dream’ to life. We had no idea the joy and celebration we were going to experience that night at Mable’s and ‘The Palace’ was the perfect soundtrack. It was the first time we sang ‘The Palace’ live in front of an audience and it couldn’t have been more fun!” — Leigh & Chandra Watson, The Watson Twins

Photo Credit: Elizabeth O. Baker Photography

LISTEN: Josh Ritter, “Honey I Do”

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Artist: Josh Ritter
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “Honey I Do”
Album: Spectral Lines
Release Date: April 28, 2023
Label: Pythias Recordings marketed and distributed by Thirty Tigers

In Their Words: “I think it’s important for us to share some of our most basic and common experiences with each other, however we can. That’s what we really, really need right now. I know we have common experiences, and it’s important to telegraph those back because they don’t have to be lonely experiences. [‘Honey I Do’] is less a confession than a signal sent outwards. It’s so easy to feel insignificant and down and unlovable; so easy to believe that no one will ever love us again. I’ve felt that way before, and it’s important enough to me to share it. Maybe someone else has, too. There! We’re not alone anymore.” — Josh Ritter

Photo Credit: Sam Kassirer

WATCH: Vance Gilbert, “Black Rochelle”

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Artist: Vance Gilbert
Hometown: Arlington, Massachusetts
Song: “Black Rochelle”
Album: The Mother of Trouble
Release Date: May 5, 2023

In Their Words: “It’s a true story. The cruelest kids are often the kids who have been treated most cruelly. One of the easiest and hardest songs ever to write. I am proud that I heard that melody so clearly in my head even as the words were cutting my chest wide open. Lori McKenna again foils with background vocal perfection.

“As for the video itself, the videographer Jon Sachs and I decided it would be most effective to do it in one pass, the only video break during Joey Landreth’s heartbreaking solo over the bridge. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that lip-synching is easy, or that real life feelings don’t happen with the sing-along-to-self. It was like double illumination, and I was shocked at how it struck me.

“Part of my job as a singer-songwriter is to be a vessel of sorts, the story coming through me, while it’s the listeners’ job — if I’ve done my part with any facility at all — to be moved. I was trying not to indicate or show all kinds of feels in my face to the camera. That said, I did all I could to keep it together, because I had to. When the concept finally came alive with the music and selected images, the brokenheartedness really was replaced by a sense of accomplishment at a story well-told.” — Vance Gilbert

Photo Credit: Rob Mattson

WATCH: Nat Myers, “75-71”

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Artist: Nat Myers
Hometown: Kenton County, Kentucky
Song: “75-71”
Album: Yellow Peril
Release Date: June 23, 2023
Label: Easy Eye Sound

In Their Words: “I wrote ’75-71′ because heartbreak can crack you like some kind of blacktop. The miles I spent gunnin from Covington to Louisville, Lexington to Midway, chasin love out of town when it never wanted me to leave, damn I felt as low as a stump. For a long time I wanted to escape the anguishes that you both give and receive, before you learn the meaning of being a better man. I wanted to do justice to the old train songs I always loved, and the many travelers I met who is still hobo-in their way, even when the old lines like the L&N or the Yellow Dog ain’t but a memory thru a foggy lookin glass. The song ends in my necks, where Anderson Ferry still ebbs between the coal barges takin their loads down river, past Boone County’s oxbows toward the Falls of the Ohio. Some of these things can bring tears to those who know em.” — Nat Myers

Photo Credit: Jim Herrington

WATCH: Oshima Brothers, “Last Minute Lover”

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Artist: Oshima Brothers
Hometown: Portland, Maine
Song: “Last Minute Lover”
Album: Dark Nights Golden Days
Release Date: April 1, 2022

In Their Words: “While driving three thousand miles, playing shows along the way, we found moments to film this music video. I directed and edited it and my brother held the camera. It’s a chapter from our 45-minute visual album out on April 1st. As for this song, I’m hopeless and arrive late to everything. But I truly try my best and am a fairly competent boyfriend. I can always cook a last-minute gourmet dinner. The beautiful rose I show up with, however, will most likely be from the neighbor’s front lawn.” — Jamie Oshima

Photo Credit: Oshima Brothers

WATCH: Brit Taylor, “Ain’t a Hard Livin'”

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Artist: Brit Taylor
Hometown: Hindman, Kentucky
Song: “Ain’t a Hard Livin'”
Album: Kentucky Blue
Release Date: February 3, 2023
Label: Cut A Shine Records / Thirty Tigers

In Their Words: “I wrote ‘Ain’t a Hard Livin’’ with Pat McLaughlin. Neither one of us had a big grand idea for a song that day. But it was a sunny day, and both of us were in a good mood! Pat just started singing what would become the first verse out of nowhere, and then the hook ‘but it ain’t a hard livin’ when you’re lovin’ on me’ just kind of fell out of the sky and hit me. These kind of co-writes are my favorite. They just feel magical. ‘Ain’t a Hard Livin’’ is a simple song about working hard and loving your life and the one you get to come home to at the end of the day. Working to live, not living to work.” — Brit Taylor

Photo Credit: David McClister

LISTEN: Prateek, “Wrong”

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Artist: Prateek
Hometown: Belmont, Massachusetts
Song: “Wrong”
Album: ‘Til June
Release Date: April 7, 2023

In Their Words: “Racism affects far more than we give it credit for, and one perhaps under-discussed part of its domain is romance. I’d always grown up believing I was ugly because I’d never heard anyone who looked like me being described as attractive. When Indian people came up in discussion, it was almost always as objects of mockery — see American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar, who enraged fans of the show so much that one of them actually went on a hunger strike. With this kind of discourse in the background of my childhood, ‘Wrong’ was a song waiting to happen. In 2021, it finally did. I wrote it in a day and posted a video of myself playing the song on Facebook. The number of supportive comments inspired me to add it to the album.” — Prateek

Photo Credit: Stephanie Houten