Tag: Song Premiere

LISTEN: Rod Gator, “Out Here in Echo Park”

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Artist: Rod Gator (aka Rod Melancon)
Hometown: Wright, Louisiana
Song: “Out Here in Echo Park”
Album: For Louisiana
Release Date: September 17, 2021
Label: Blue Élan Records

In Their Words: “I wrote ‘Out Here in Echo Park’ during my last year living in Echo Park. Every evening I’d walk five miles down to the L.A. River and sit along the bank. It was one of the most peaceful times of my life. During the walk I’d hear Spanish music playing from windows and watch the sun slowly set. East L.A. means a lot to me. It’s where I go in my mind when I feel overwhelmed. I picture myself sitting along the L.A. River. I miss Echo Park everyday. It’s the place where I finally began to feel comfortable in my own skin.” — Rod Gator

Photo credit: David McClister

LISTEN: Tommy Castro, “I Caught a Break”

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Artist: Tommy Castro
Hometown: San Jose, California
Song: “I Caught a Break”
Album: Tommy Castro Presents A Bluesman Came To Town
Release Date: September 17, 2021
Label: Alligator Records

In Their Words: “‘I Caught a Break’ is part of the story that is A Bluesman Came to Town. It came out of a writing session with Tom Hambridge and Richard Fleming. After much hard work and few setbacks the young man in the story finally has some success. It’s a classic rock ‘n’ roll tune. I can hear the influence of cats like Chuck Berry, Keith Richards, and maybe even a little Jimmy Vaughan on this. This was a fun track to play guitar and sing. It comes along in the story right when we needed a shift in tempo and groove.” — Tommy Castro

Photo credit: Victoria Smith

LISTEN: Alisa Amador, “Burnt and Broken”

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Artist: Alisa Amador
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Song: “Burnt and Broken”
Album: Narratives EP
Release Date: September 17, 2021

In Their Words: “This song is about rape culture and toxic masculinity: ‘What a world we live in with its endless charms / Blinded lies keep winning over open arms / Sticks and stones and systems built to cause you harm.’ However, this song can be used as a lens with which to examine myriad systems of oppression. Violence stems from fear, and fear grows from a lack of understanding. ‘The bruise of words unspoken’ illustrates the pain caused by an absence of conversation around these violences. Systematic violence is designed to trick you and distract you (‘a ruse, a plume of smoke’) from the reality: ‘the truth is burnt and broken.’

“The arrangement of this song is intentionally spare, like the exposed framework of a house after a fire. It is a fitting metaphor for this song: a hard look at the violence of misogyny, as Kaiti Jones, Hayley Sabella, and I stand among the wreckage, singing with broken hearts, and hot anger pulsing through us. We had to record our vocals apart from one another, but every time I hear this song, I feel stronger and broken open at the same time. Their voices are so poignant on this song.” — Alisa Amador

Photo credit: Jacquelyn Marie

LISTEN: The Barefoot Movement, “Back Behind the Wheel”

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Artist: The Barefoot Movement
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Back Behind the Wheel”
Album: Pressing Onward
Release Date: September 17, 2021
Label: Bonfire Music Group

In Their Words: “‘Back Behind the Wheel’ is basically a dialogue with myself where I’m expressing my fears and then bolstering myself up. This is a theme in a lot of my songs, and especially on this album. I am by nature a pretty hopeful person; even when I allow myself to feel the full weight of whatever I’m despairing over, somehow I just can’t let that part of me be the ultimate winner. So it’s that idea of letting yourself feel what you need to feel, but not allowing that to be the end of the journey. Because unless you just give up, the only way to move is forward. I wrote the song about my experiences in the music industry, but I think it’s a universal concept. The chorus says, ‘When it comes to this, I don’t know what it means to quit.’ The listener can allow the ‘this’ in the line to represent whatever matters to them!” — Noah Wall, The Barefoot Movement

Photo credit: Workshop Media

LISTEN: Chris Robley, “Love Is a Four-Letter Word”

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Artist: Chris Robley
Hometown: Lewiston, Maine
Song: “Love Is a Four-Letter Word”
Album: A Filament in the Wilderness of What Comes Next
Release Date: September 14, 2021
Label: Cutthroat Pop Records

In Their Words: “Bob Dylan wrote a song called ‘Love Is a Four-Letter Word.’ I didn’t know that until I was on stage announcing my new song and someone shouted, ‘I LOVE Dylan!’ Anyway, you can’t copyright titles and I didn’t borrow any other lyrics — so we’re not in Darius Rucker or Old Crow Medicine Show territory here. It’s all mine, Bob! I don’t know if there’s much to explain except the obvious: love can be a double-edged sword. We can build beautiful things inspired by love. Or we can build walls, reactionary political movements, or just act like selfish shitheads, all because of the same basic force. One word, different outcomes.” — Chris Robley

Photo credit: Lauren Breau

LISTEN: Skillet Licorice, “3-in-1 2-Step”

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Artist: Skillet Licorice
Hometown: San Francisco, California
Song: “3-in-1 2-Step”
Album: Allsorts Orchestra
Release Date: September 10, 2021
Label: Tiki Parlour Recordings

In Their Words: “‘3-in-1 2-Step’ was one of the first East Texas Serenaders tunes that we learned. One listen and you feel transported 100 years into the past. It is so named because it borrows its melody from three other tunes: ‘Dill Pickle Rag,’ ‘The Entertainer’ and ‘I Don’t Love Nobody.’ As such, it’s perfectly emblematic of the ETS. They weren’t jazz players and they weren’t classical players, but these talented Texans were able to seamlessly incorporate elements from disparate genres to create something new, something their own, yet somehow familiar. Our version features a driving yet elegant banjo-mando harmony part played by San Diego old-time wunderkind Clinton Davis.” — Elise Engelberg and Matt Knoth, Skillet Licorice

Photo credit: Sean Kelly.
Skillet Licorice Allsorts Orchestra Illustration by ‘The Simpsons’ artist Joe Wack

LISTEN: Ross Adams, “Tobacco Country”

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Artist: Ross Adams
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Song: “Tobacco Country”
Album: Escaping Southern Heat
Release Date: September 10, 2021

In Their Words: “The inspiration behind ‘Tobacco Country’ came from always staying true to your roots and remembering the people who helped you follow your path and dreams. The South raised me and the culture is in my heart, it is family, and reminds me of simpler times. It’s coming to that realization of needing to grow out of your adolescence to make your soul thrive and shape your own destiny. I don’t plan on staying in the South forever. I have this dream of moving out West, but ‘Tobacco Country’ was me sorta remembering my roots, but still wanting to get out and see the world.” — Ross Adams

Photo credit: Joshua Black Wilkins

LISTEN: Swamptooth, “The Owl Theory”

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Artist: Swamptooth
Hometown: Savannah, Georgia
Song: “The Owl Theory”
Album: B-Flat Earth
Release Date: September 17, 2021

In Their Words: “This song was written by guitarist Jay Rudd. In the Netflix series The Staircase, crime novelist Michael Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife who was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their home. A few years later a neighbor brought forth a new theory that an owl had attacked Peterson’s wife on her way inside the home and she had fallen down the stairs during the resulting confusion. Many have argued that the theory is plausible due to evidence such as microscopic owl feathers found in her hand. This song manifested after visualizing the owl attack and subsequent fall down the staircase.” — Swamptooth

Photo credit: Kelly Roetto

LISTEN: Birds of Play, “Not Alone”

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Artist: Birds of Play
Hometown: Ophir, Colorado
Song: “Not Alone”
Album: Murmurations Vol. 1
Release Date: September 3, 2021

In Their Words: “‘Not Alone’ was written in the thick of lockdown, early April 2020. I was sitting down to read a book when I found out that John Prine had died. I put my book down and picked up my guitar and played his songs for a couple hours. Somewhere in the midst of that celebration and mourning this song appeared. I wrote it over the course of that night and the next morning as a bit of a reflection on our shared lot. It feels cathartic to sing and still unfortunately relevant.” — Alex Paul, Birds of Play

Photo credit: Sarah Schwab

LISTEN: Ben Bostick, “Like Old People Do”

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Artist: Ben Bostick
Hometown: Born in Beaufort, South Carolina. Currently resides in Lilburn, Georgia
Song: “Like Old People Do”
Album: Grown Up Love
Release Date: August 20, 2021

In Their Words: “My friend Pam Hobby, a great songwriter herself, came to one of my shows, and we were chatting between sets. She told me that she and her boyfriend had been down in the Keys doing nothing, sitting at the end of the dock on rocking chairs and watching the sunset ‘like old people do.’ My songwriter brain latched onto that phrase and immediately started writing the song. I think I had it mostly written by the time I played my next set. It was a perfect sentiment for my life.

“My wife Cari and I had been rushing around to doctor’s appointments, therapies, pharmacies, going sleepless with a newborn and also our oldest daughter’s Carmela’s terrible sleep disturbances (due to Rett Syndrome), and generally going at a hundred miles an hour. We needed to slow down just to maintain our sanity. We needed to take a page out of the old people’s book of love, and just sit still, saying nothing, holding hands like old people do. Of course taking a vacation to the coast with two babies during COVID wasn’t possible, because of so many different reasons, but this song helped us realize that we needed to take a breath whenever possible.” — Ben Bostick

Photo credit: Carey Hood