Tag: Song Premiere

LISTEN: Dale Ann Bradley, “Kentucky Gold” (feat. Sam Bush)

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Dale Ann Bradley
Hometown: Middlesboro, Kentucky
Song: “Kentucky Gold” (featuring Sam Bush)
Album: Kentucky For Me
Release Date: June 23, 2023
Label: Pinecastle Records

In Their Words: “‘Kentucky Gold’ is a great story about determination, faith, and a desire to be in the race despite all the doubts and opinions of others. It’s about just taking your place and giving it all you’ve got, while at the same time, keeping in mind not to let the odds be a factor in your right to be at the race. We’re really happy with how this song came out and it was an honor to have Sam Bush on it. We’re excited for everyone to hear the full album when it drops. The title is Kentucky For Me and it’s a tribute to my home state. We also have a great lineup of guest artists who joined us.” – Dale Ann Bradley

Photo Credit: Pinecastle Records

LISTEN: Eliza Gilkyson, “Here Comes the Night”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Eliza Gilkyson
Hometown: Taos, NM
Song: “Here Comes the Night”
Album: Home
Release Date: June 23, 2023
Label: Realiza Records

In Their Words: “With the encroaching reality of global warming and extreme natural disasters I find comfort in knowing that the Earth is more resilient than human beings at their worst. Even if I don’t live to see things turn around after they fall apart, I do feel hopeful about the Earth’s supreme thrust to create life in all its myriad forms. I wrote this song just to conjure up some courage to get my emotional ‘sea legs’ in the light of what’s coming within my lifetime, and to find some element of redemption in all of it. Musically, I wanted to keep it all upbeat rather than gloomy, to convey a combination of apprehensive and hopeful feelings. My brother Tony Gilkyson delivered just the kind of twang-and-grit guitar to accomplish that, and I think it pairs well with Don Richmond’s cascading mandolin parts.” – Eliza Gilkyson

Photo Credit: Robert Jensen

LISTEN: Sara Petite, “The Empress”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Sara Petite
Hometown: San Diego, CA
Song: “The Empress”
Album: The Empress
Release Date: June 9, 2023
Label: 40 Below Records

In Their Words: “The Empress rides with a sword of Justice by her side. A tale of the feminine energy through the hand and sands of time. From Joan of Arc to Mary Magdalene and other heroines. A tale of love, perseverance, and rising above.” – Sara Petite

Photo Credit: Kaelan Barowsky

LISTEN: Dusky Waters, “How Will We Know?”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Dusky Waters
Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana
Song: “How Will We Know?”
Album: Pass It On
Release Date: June 9, 2023

In Their Words: “I am so excited to share the song ‘How Will We Know?’ as the final teaser to the album, Pass It On, that will be released on Friday, June 9! This album captures many special and pivotal moments in time for me and my perspective on navigating the 2020s as a black, southern, millennial woman. I was inspired to write this song during a hiking trip in the Smoky Mountains. The beauty, awe, and uncertainty I experienced on that journey provided some really fitting parallels to the progression and ending of a long-term relationship, which you can hear in the song. My favorite moment on the track is the ending, which features a piano solo by Tommy Henson. Tommy began playing with the band about a year and a half ago and has already left his mark on our sound and brand of Americana. I hope you enjoy the track and also check out the rest of the album when it comes out on Friday!” – Dusky Waters

Photo Credit: Analiese De Saw

LISTEN: Laith, “Texas Birds”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Laith
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Song: “Texas Birds”
Album: Lightning
Release Date: June 9, 2023
Label: Fluff and Gravy Records

In Their Words: “‘Texas Birds’ kind of ‘fell in my lap.’ It’s derived from my hazy collection of memories and being a kid in South Texas obsessed with birds. At the time it was written, it felt like the ethos of the record I wanted to make, so much so that I named the band that played on the record and that plays with me live after it. Laith & The Texas Birds. I hadn’t seen the sun in 3 weeks one winter in Portland and all I wanted to see was some birds, but they were all hiding from the rain. The band started around that time, so I made them birds.” – Laith

Photo Credit: Mandi Jean

LISTEN: The South Austin Moonlighters, “Box of Memories”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: The South Austin Moonlighters
Hometown: Austin, TX
Song: “Box of Memories”
Album: From Here to Home
Release Date: June 30, 2023
Label: The South Austin Moonlighters Records

In Their Words: “It’s tough to get over losing someone you love. For a long time, I carried a ‘memory’ around with me everywhere I went and it affected everything I did – without me really knowing it. There’s a lot of that in us. I’m not really the best communicator (which is why I think I get such satisfaction in writing songs), so it was really difficult for me or anyone around me to really know what was going on inside. One time a good friend told me something to this effect: ‘You know, no one can live up to that memory you’re carrying around with you in your head.’ He was right. There was something about it that I understood well, and I swore I wouldn’t live that way anymore. A few years later, I set out to write this song in retrospect.” – Chris Beall

Photo Credit: Mark Del Castillo

LISTEN: Laney Lou and the Bird Dogs, “Give It Up”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Laney Lou and The Bird Dogs
Hometown: Bozeman, Montana
Song: “Give It Up”
Album: Coyote
Release Date: May 26, 2023 (single);  June 2, 2023 (album)

In Their Words: “The song ‘Give It Up’ came together in a matter of minutes, like it was just waiting for the right time to be written. I sat down at the piano one day and started playing the main melody of the verse. Words flowed immediately and the subject of the song became clear once I started singing the chorus line, ‘I can’t give it up.’

“This song dives into the incessant questions that last with you years after a relationship ends. You can turn over every stone beating yourself up for past actions, but ultimately you have to own your decisions. The phrase ‘I can’t give it up’ is repeated over and over through the song, feeling exasperated and victorious at the same time, like an earnest declaration to actually give it up and move on.

“Instrumentally the song mimics the ups and downs that you feel when processing a relationship. The quiet parts picked by our banjo player, Matt Demarais, are reflective and delicate, but the song reaches an apex when our fiddle player, Brian Kassay, explodes into a solo after the haunting bridge. I like to think that this song is a final chapter in a long battle to let something go, and the repeated chorus lines are a cathartic way for the narrator to do so.” — Lena Schiffer, Vocals/Guitar

Photo Credit: John Troy Photography

LISTEN: Dallas Burrow, “River Town”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Dallas Burrow
Hometown: New Braunfels, TX
Song: “River Town”
Album: Blood Brothers
Release Date: June 16, 2023
Label: Soundly Music

In Their Words: “The record kicks off with the true story of my youth in small town Texas; the leaving, and the coming back to start a family, all with an outlaw country back beat, dressed up with fiddle, organ, and electric guitar, and producer Jonathan Tyler singing harmonies. The hill country of the Lone Star State,  and my hometown in particular, is a community that revolves around its rivers, lakes, and swimming holes, offering folks, and especially kids growing up there, an eternally timeless pastime. Even still, I have always been a bit of a free spirit, and as a young man I felt like the town wasn’t quite big enough for my taste. After getting in a little trouble, doing a lot of traveling, fast living, and soul searching, and finally meeting my wife and starting to settle down a little, in the end, I realized just what a beautiful area it was to live in after all, and the perfect place for us to raise a kid.” – Dallas Burrow

Photo Credit: Madison Taylor

LISTEN: Julie Williams, “Big Blue House”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Julie Williams
Hometown: Tampa, FL
Song: “Big Blue House”
Album: Julie Williams EP
Release Date: May 12, 2023 (single); June 2, 2023 (EP)

In Their Words: “‘Big Blue House’ is a song about racism and violence through the eyes of a six-year-old girl, who is told by her father that she can’t play outside with the other kids, but she doesn’t know why. Originally written as a poem, the story came to me after reading the news of Keyon Harrold Jr., a teenager who was assaulted by a white woman who thought that he stole her cell phone. It made me think of the conversations that parents of color have to have with their children — that you might be a child, but some people in the world will see you as a threat. I knew that this story was special and that I had to bring it to life with my friend and one of my songwriting inspirations, Brittney Spencer. I brought her the poem written on scraps of white notebook paper and together we created the song that you can hear now.

“What really brought the magic was working with Nicole Neely — an amazing violinist and composer who arranged the strings and brought together an all-female lineup of players, including Monique and Chauntee Ross of the SistaStrings and Josée Weigland-Klein, to record the strings. Together with Gabriel and Gideon Klein’s production and Rodlin Pierre’s mixing magic, the song and stories came to life.

“I originally planned to release ‘Big Blue House’ with the rest of my EP that comes out on June 2, but after the recent Covenant Shooting, the expulsion of the Tennessee Three, and the continued news of gun violence and political inaction, I felt called to release the song and its message into this world. I wrote this song over two years ago, and it is heartbreakingly still relevant.”

Photo credit: Mackenzie Ryan

LISTEN: Jane Bruce, “Best of Me”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Jane Bruce
Hometown: Ogden, Utah
Song: “Best of Me”
Album: My Bed
Release Date: February 11, 2022

In Their Words: “This song really flowed out of me. I find it (too) easy to write and sing about my insecurities and the pieces of myself that I don’t love, but I felt that writing a song that clearly laid out those things in the hopes that it might make someone love me more was an interesting twist on a ‘pining-for-you’ love song and an exploration of the ways we present ourselves to the people we desire. Growing up in Utah I felt constantly aware of my different-ness and keenly attuned to all the things that made me unlovable, or wrong. With time I have come to realize that these so-called shortcomings are human and that my deep-seated fears of disappointing others come from a place of empathy, not weakness.” — Jane Bruce

Photo credit: Angelina Castillo