Tag: Song Premiere

LISTEN: Wolf van Elfmand, “Sweet Regret”

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Artist: Wolf van Elfmand
Hometown: Edwards, Colorado
Song: “Sweet Regret”
Album: All Blue
Release Date: January 29, 2021 (single), February 12, 2021 (album)

In Their Words: “‘Sweet Regret’ is a song that grew out of loss and its lessons. We all lose things and likely sometimes we flail about in anger or get lost in lonesomeness that follows. This song is about the long road towards discovering the only other option: acceptance. Learning to live with the darker parts in the journey and recognizing that old feelings sometimes live with us forever is a strangely beautiful lesson from losing.” — Wolf van Elfmand

Photo credit: Carolyn Pender

LISTEN: Pony Bradshaw, “Foxfire”

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Artist: Pony Bradshaw
Hometown: Chatsworth, Georgia (Murray County)
Song: “Foxfire”
Album: Calico Jim
Release Date: January 29, 2021
Label: Black Mountain Music

In Their Words: “‘Foxfire’ is the least personal song on the record, but maybe my favorite to play. It was inspired by a couple of Charles Joyner books I was reading at the time… Down by the Riverside: a South Carolina Slave Community and Shared Traditions: Southern History and Folk Culture. I’d recently written a song called ‘Old Dave Drake’ (not on this record) about the potter and slave from Edgefield, South Carolina, and was reading a lot of history, nonfiction, and folk culture studies. ‘Foxfire’ was born out of that time period. I don’t think it’s written enough about (in song form), but I also understand that it’s not my place to be an authority on the subject. I tend to write things I’m interested in as opposed to what might interest folks. Hopefully the two come together every now and then and we’re all satisfied, though.” — Pony Bradshaw

Photo credit: Bekah Jordan

LISTEN: Lizzie Weber, “Blue Wave Bloom”

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Artist: Lizzie Weber
Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
Song: “Blue Wave Bloom”
Album: How Does It Feel EP
Release Date: January 22, 2021

In Their Words: “‘Blue Wave Bloom’ was the last song on the EP that I wrote in isolation during the shutdown. The red tide had just occurred in California and I was in awe of the bright blue colors enveloping the black sea. I began writing the lyrics, positioning the red tide as a metaphor for toxicity in one’s own mind, something that for me, arose with that extreme isolation. It served as my anthem, along with the other two EP songs, for overcoming adversity, reminding myself of my own willpower and strength in the face of any challenge. My hope is that this song resonates with the listener in that very same way, reminding them of their own power and personal strength, and their ability to survive the hardest of times.” — Lizzie Weber

Photo credit: Stephen Gilbert

LISTEN: Balsam Range, “Rivers, Rains and Runaway Trains”

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Artist: Balsam Range
Hometown: Haywood County, North Carolina
Song: “Rivers, Rains and Runaway Trains”
Single Release Date: January 15, 2021
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “‘Rivers, Rains and Runaway Trains’ is another great tune from Milan Miller and Beth Husband. For me it’s an upbeat and moody song that reminds me that there’s sometimes that one person or thing in your life that no matter how much you look ahead and prepare they still catch you by surprise. Could be in a good way or in a not so good way. As the song says in the bridge: ‘My steady feet stumbled, the heavens they rumbled, the earth shook below the ground. I tried to speak but mumbled, my senses they crumbled, the second you came around.'” — Caleb Smith, guitarist and vocalist

Photo credit: David Simchok

LISTEN: Luke LeBlanc, “All My Love”

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Artist: Luke LeBlanc
Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Song: “All My Love”
Album: Better Now EP
Release Date: January 12, 2021

In Their Words: “‘All My Love’ came about while I was scrolling through some year-old voice memos on my phone. It was one of those song ideas that I recorded quickly in the moment and then left alone for a while and almost forgot. The lyrics came pretty quickly, but musically it took awhile to figure out what I wanted to do with it. I’m happy with how it turned out; it starts small and builds consistently the whole way through. All the fingerpicking is done on a Les Paul electric which gives you the option to really highlight certain notes louder than others while you’re playing.” — Luke LeBlanc

Photo credit: Mark Walentiny

WATCH: Buck Meek, “Candle”

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Artist: Buck Meek
Hometown: Wimberley, Texas
Song: “Candle”
Album: Two Saviors
Release Date: January 15, 2021
Label: Keeled Scales

In Their Words: “Have you spoken to your god through a seashell? Have you ever instinctually called a loved one the instant after a near-death experience? Has a nosebleed ever sprung at the definitive moment of personal growth, like a threshold? Has a friend felt you light a candle from 1000 miles away? Do you drive with the windows down and the heat on full blast? Have your eyes changed color?” — Buck Meek

Photo credit: Robbie Jeffers

LISTEN: Stephen Kellogg, “I’ve Had Enough”

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Artist: Stephen Kellogg
Hometown: Connecticut
Song: “I’ve Had Enough ”
Album: I’ve Had Enough
Release Date: December 18, 2020

In Their Words: “I’ve always been in theory, and actuality, an optimistic person. This year has tested that. 2020 has been scary and exhausting in myriad ways. Can we agree on that? No? Of course, we can’t. Because that’s what it’s like when you are homeschooling four kids through a pandemic while trying to knock out a living and swallow the bitter injustice of a morally bankrupt president who would rather take down a great nation than admit legitimate defeat.” — Stephen Kellogg

Photo credit: Jeff Fasano

BGS Wraps: Colin & Caroline, “It Isn’t Even Christmas Yet”

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Artist: Colin & Caroline
Single: “It Isn’t Even Christmas Yet”
Release Date: December 4, 2020

In Their Words: “For the two of us, the holidays have always carried with them fond memories of childhood, and growing up within our families. For me [Caroline], this meant sitting on the steps with my two brothers as Nat King Cole and Sinatra’s holiday songs filled our house, and waiting patiently to run downstairs on Christmas morning. For Colin, it meant reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve with his family (a tradition that still stands today)… There’s a certain nostalgia that we feel around Christmas time that is reflective of our own relationship as well as our individual upbringings. We recognize that this isn’t the case for everyone surrounding the holidays, and that we’re lucky to feel this way. 2020 has been one of the most uncertain and difficult years our world has seen in a long time, and through our Christmas music, we want to spread a message of hope, and bring our listeners a sense of comfort, joy, and some extra love during perhaps the most important holiday season yet.” — Colin & Caroline

Enjoy more BGS Wraps here.

LISTEN: Deutsch & Thorn, “Scorpio Sun”

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Artist: Deutsch & Thorn (Erik Deutsch and Andy Thorn)
Hometown: Mexico City, Mexico and Boulder, Colorado
Song: “Scorpio Sun”
Release Date: December 4, 2020
Label: Thornpipe Music

In Their Words: “When I first wrote this tune, I recorded it with the Colorado Playboys (Travis Book, Jon Stickley, and John Frazier), and called it ‘Sicks Ate.’ (We thought we were very clever.) Over a decade later, playing it with pianist Erik Deutsch, it took on a whole new life. As fellow Scorpios, Erik and I retitled it ‘Scorpio Sun.’ We recorded this EP in Erik’s beautiful Mexico City apartment, between playing shows at Zinco Jazz Club in the city’s vibrant Centro neighborhood. I never thought I’d bring my banjo to Mexico City, to mingle with Erik’s jazz influences and the sights and sounds of a dazzling culture. But that’s kind of what it’s like playing with Erik — you never know what might happen next.” — Andy Thorn

Photo credit: Josh Timmermans

LISTEN: Ida Mae, “Break the Shadows”

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Artist: Ida Mae
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Break the Shadows”
Album: Raining for You EP
Release Date: November 20, 2020
Label: Thirty Tigers / Vow Road Records

In Their Words: “This was one of the last songs we recorded for our new album as the pandemic put an end to our touring. We played our last show in Texas, round the corner from the Alamo, and flew straight back to Nashville and into quarantine. Our plans to record the next record had been ruined so whilst in lockdown we decided to wire the whole house into a remote recording studio with the analogue equipment we’ve been collecting over the years of touring and got to work. This song was inspired by the Stephen Collins Foster song ‘Hard Times’ written in 1854 … it’s an old song that was hugely popular and has been parodied for over 150 years… it felt an appropriate moment in history to use it as inspiration again. It’s the first song I wrote and recorded with my steel-bodied National Resophonic Style 0 resonator guitar, a very special instrument.” — Chris Turpin, Ida Mae

Photo credit: Zach Pigg