Tag: Song Premiere

LISTEN: The Reverend Shawn Amos, “Baby Please Don’t Go”

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Artist: The Reverend Shawn Amos
Hometown: California immigrant, Texas resident
Song: “Baby Please Don’t Go”
Album: The Cause of It All
Release Date: May 21, 2021

In Their Words: “‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ is quintessential blues. Ours is an amalgam of various versions, and closest to Muddy Waters’. This is another example of us bringing blues back the parlors of the 1920s and ‘30s. What if Muddy Waters was more of a contemporary of Scott Joplin than Little Walter? It’s proof the blues dresses up nicely while keeping its outsider status.” — The Reverend Shawn Amos

Photo credit: Fred Siegel

LISTEN: Sean McConnell, “Price of Love”

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Artist: Sean McConnell
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Price of Love”
Album: A Horrible Beautiful Dream
Release Date: August 6, 2021
Label: Soundly Music

In Their Words: “‘Price of Love’ is a direct result of a conversation I had with my mother on the phone one day while was driving on tour. I was missing my wife and little girl back at home. We talked about the price your heart pays for giving itself fully to someone. It’s scary, you know? Scary that something could happen to them. That something will eventually happen to all of us. But yet, most of us decide to risk that. To take the jump. To give up your heart completely. It’s heavy shit.” — Sean McConnell

Photo credit: Alexa King

LISTEN: Reid Zoé, “When I Go”

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Artist: Reid Zoé
Hometown: Toronto, Canada
Song: “When I Go”
Album: Shed My Skin
Release Date: May 14, 2021

In Their Words: “On the surface, ‘When I Go’ is a song about dying — but it’s really all of the questions that come with being a human on this earth. It’s the acceptance that we don’t know everything, and that that’s okay. We are part of everything. It’s about the joy that can come with the realization that ‘nothing really matters. It was written during a time of really potent growth, and I hope it’s as healing for the listener as it has been for me.” — Reid Zoé

Photo credit: Andy Ince

LISTEN: Full Cord, “Right in Step”

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Artist: Full Cord
Hometown: Grand Haven, Michigan
Song: “Right in Step”
Album: Hindsight
Release Date: May 15, 2021

In Their Words: “‘Right in Step’ is lovingly referred to as a perfectly lovely bluegrass song. This song is the debut collaborative song by fiddler Grant Flick and mandolinist Brian Oberlin. The lyric content is love of music & hopefulness, gratification, and that unified feeling that music can deliver. Written in the late summer of 2020, it offers a respite amongst the uncertainty of a pandemic and a place where a musician can always feel at home in the music. Grant came to rehearsal one afternoon with his tenor guitar and a lick that immediately caught the attention of Brian. The one fallback for musicians is to continue doing what we love and that is making great music that makes everyone feel good — by the following afternoon ‘Right in Step’ was a complete song that we are immensely proud of.” — Full Cord

Photo credit: Derek Ketchum, Local Spins

LISTEN: Amy Helm, “Sweet Mama”

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Artist: Amy Helm
Hometown: Woodstock, New York
Song: “Sweet Mama”
Album: What the Flood Leaves Behind
Release Date: June 18, 2021
Label: Renew Records/BMG

In Their Words: “‘Sweet Mama’ was written by the wonderful Steve Salett and features killer harp by the one and only Phil Cook. This track is a rock and roll cut made for you, with love, in Woodstock, New York!” — Amy Helm

Photo credit: Ebru Yildiz

LISTEN: Angela Autumn, “Sowin’ Seeds”

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Artist: Angela Autumn
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee (originally from Zelienople, Pennsylvania)
Song: “Sowin’ Seeds”
Album: Frontiers Woman
Release Date: June 4, 2021

In Their Words: “‘Sowin’ Seeds’ is the oldest song on the record; I wrote it in 2017. It explores the could-be life of the musician; one of imagined ease, free from sacrifice. Once, after a show, a construction worker asked that I play this song again. It was in Pittsburgh, a town full of blue-collar workers. The chorus is a reference to the African American spiritual, ‘Working on a Building,’ which was recorded and later popularized by The Carter Family. The song features Nate Leath on fiddle, Keagan Justice on banjo, Mickey Justice on mandolin, and Kate Haldrup on drums.” — Angela Autumn

Photo credit: Dana Kalachnik

LISTEN: Shay Martin Lovette, “Parkway Bound”

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Artist: Shay Martin Lovette
Hometown: Boone, North Carolina
Song: “Parkway Bound”
Album: Scatter & Gather
Release Date: May 14, 2021

In Their Words: “This song is a tip of the hat to the Blue Ridge Parkway that runs from Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the western edge of North Carolina near Cherokee, to Shenandoah National Park at Rockfish Gap. I consider myself lucky to live near the Blue Ridge Parkway in Boone, North Carolina, and find myself in constant awe of the landscape that this region offers. In ‘Parkway Bound,’ I wanted to capture the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the dead of winter. To me, the hiking trails and scenery in this area offer a means of escape from the confines of normal life and as I got further along in the writing process, I was drawn to the imagery of someone leaving their troubles behind and setting out for the Parkway as I have done so many times. The music could be said to be influenced more by great narrative writers like Norman Blake and Slaid Cleaves than your standard folkies, but there’s a little Townes Van Zandt and Gram Parsons in there.” — Shay Martin Lovette

Photo credit: Julianna Liegel

LISTEN: Maia Sharp, “Things to Fix”

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Artist: Maia Sharp
Hometown: Nashville, TN (originally Los Angeles, CA)
Song: “Things to Fix”
Album: Mercy Rising
Release Date: May 7, 2021
Label: Crooked Crown

In Their Words: “When I moved into my place in Nashville in 2019 (from California where I had lived all my life) there was, of course, a list of things to fix or upgrade or just tailor to my taste. This was all while I was trying to process the end of my 21-year marriage. I knew there were things I said that I wish I hadn’t and things I should’ve said that I didn’t. I wasn’t sure how to fix that yet so instead I painted a room and then another room, I replaced locks and hinges and repurposed picture frames, you get the idea. I brought this situation as a song idea to my co-writer, Noah Guthrie (who has a great version of the song on his new album) and we saw it all the way through. Eventually I did get to say the better things to my ex and we are lifelong friends but in the meantime I had the cleanest house ever.” — Maia Sharp

Photo credit: Emily Kopp

LISTEN: Beth Whitney, “I Go”

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Artist: Beth Whitney
Hometown: Leavenworth, Washington
Song: “I Go”
Album: Into The Ground
Release Date: May 28, 2021
Label: Tone Tree Music

In Their Words: “In the 1960s, my grandparents started a tradition in our family called ‘the 9-day Backpack’ that continues in different forms to this day. I’ve joined about five of these and to tell the truth, I do not backpack gracefully. Mosquito and horse fly bites turn into big welts. I’m blistered from boots and bright pink from the sun… but as the wilderness takes me in, it starts to heal me somehow and I come into focus.

“I wrote this one with Gina Belliveau and Brittany Alvis at a songwriting retreat some friends and I hosted in the mountains. The assignment was to write a song inspired by one of our favorite poems, ‘The Peace of the Wild Things,’ by Wendell Berry. These two were a joy to write with and are both featured in the recording.” — Beth Whitney

Photo credit: Eratosthenes Fackenthall

LISTEN: Ted Russell Kamp, “Lightning Strikes Twice”

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Artist: Ted Russell Kamp
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Lightning Strikes Twice ”
Album: Solitaire
Release Date: May 7, 2021
Label: PoMo Records

In Their Words: “I wrote this one in Nashville last year while I was on tour with Duff McKagan. We had a day and a half off so we got together and started talking about Billy Joe Shaver and wrote this one in his style. I started out with the cool intro riff and we wrote a cool classic story song. It was originally going to be a honky-tonk song but as I got thinking about the record I decided to rework and make it the first bluegrass song on any record of mine. I played all the instruments and then sent it to Don Gallardo and he added his harmony vocal.” — Ted Russell Kamp

Photo credit: Karman Kruschke