Tag: Song Premiere

LISTEN: Ruby Mack, “Little Bird”

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Artist: Ruby Mack
Hometown: Greenfield, Massachusetts
Song: “Little Bird”
Album: Devil Told Me
Release Date: October 23, 2020

In Their Words: “‘Little Bird’ is a spirited newgrass ditty about laying down your pride and being vulnerable to the risk and improbable feelings that flood in when you follow your heart versus the stasis of playing it safe. I wrote it with a friend when I didn’t have the courage to tell the one I loved that I loved her. ‘Little Bird’ was the 2am phone calls in the heat of the summer. We never kissed and we never told a soul. Historically, songwriting has been a vehicle for sharing everything I couldn’t say directly. I conceal my truths in poetry, metaphor, and melody. ‘Little Bird’ is a page from one of my oldest diaries.” — Emma Ayres, Ruby Mack

https://soundcloud.com/loudmouthpro/04-little-bird-ruby-mack/s-yNxMKMklVbp

Photo credit: Gianna Colson

LISTEN: Rachel Brooke, “Undecided Love”

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Artist: Rachel Brooke
Hometown: Lovells, Michigan
Song: “Undecided Love”
Album: The Loneliness in Me
Release Date: October 23, 2020
Label: Mal Records

In Their Words: “It’s like a good classic heartbreak song. Waiting for someone to choose you and return the love you have for them… but maybe they won’t. It’s leaving your fate up to someone else, knowing that there’s a good chance you’ll fall. I love all the sounds and instruments on this one, and I feel lucky to have Dave Feeny play pedal steel. He makes it sound exactly like I’ve always imagined it. I also love the ‘back and forth’ with guitar (Louis Osborn) and pedal steel. I wanted to create a somewhat call and response feel, similar to a conversation between two people, echoing the lyrics in a way. This is actually one of the older songs of the bunch. I think the idea came for this song a few years ago, and it was just a fragment of an idea/song, but we knew something was special about it, and kept working on it. This is my mom’s favorite song on the album, so you know it’s good. ;)” — Rachel Brooke

Photo credit: Jess Varda

WATCH: Alright Alright, “Missouri Calling”

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Artist: Alright Alright (husband and wife Seth and China Kent)
Hometown: Denver, Colorado
Song: “Missouri Calling”
Album: Crucible
Release Date: October 23, 2020

In Their Words: “‘Missouri Calling’ is an empathetic, compassionate vignette of a woman who leaves Missouri after being kicked out of her unhappy home. She heads to Denver with marijuana-tinted dollar signs in her eyes, and eventually finds herself out on the streets. After working with homeless women at a shelter for several years, Seth and I heard enough stories to understand that people find themselves without homes for countless reasons, and we are all closer to that line between shelter and no shelter than we would like to believe.

“This summer, the reliable network of church-led homeless shelters shut down due to COVID, and as a result, countless homeless camps began popping up all around Denver. Huge city parks and lots were filled with tents and makeshift shelters, laundry hanging on chain link fences, as pop-up bike repair stations appeared on random street corners. I wanted to capture footage of these homeless camps around the city to bring the plight of the unhoused to light in the age of COVID. Our 13-year-old son, Fender, and I took a trip to the capitol building where the largest of these camps was located, and equipped with only a GoPro and iPhones, we walked around and captured the footage that is now in the video.

“After editing the footage together, I wondered if, perhaps, the video would be made stronger by the addition of fact-based context. If, perhaps, we could find out some statistics about homelessness in Denver and maybe understand a little more about why the unhoused were so visible all of a sudden. Our kids attend an amazing school whose mission is to provide students with a racially and economically diverse educational environment, so we asked the social justice teacher at our kids’ school to help. Mx. Saleh was so excited about the prospect that they jumped right on it, and Fender’s 8th grade class researched and wrote all of the facts presented in the video.” — China Kent, Alright Alright

Photo credit: Made Shop

LISTEN: David Quinn, “Letting Go”

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Artist: David Quinn
Hometown: Woodridge, Illinois
Song: “Letting Go”
Album: Letting Go
Release Date: October 23, 2020

In Their Words: “The song ‘Letting Go’ is what really got the whole record going for me. It put everything in perspective about what I was trying to say with the album. It all started with that opening line, ‘I’m letting go of everything that’s holding me down.’ I was dealing with a bunch of things at the moment, and I just needed to let it all go. I had a headache for about six months straight, and I reference that in the song: ‘My head, it hurts/Lord you know I’m spinnin’ around.’

“I was also being pulled in a million different directions in my personal life and with music. After the first record, I felt a little pigeonholed by a specific genre, when for me, I’m just making country music the way I hear it. I was tired of even considering those things when I was making music, or any decision with my life. I think we spend far too much time trying to make other people happy, and I decided I am through with it, even if that means getting rid of people or things in your life that hold you back; that’s where that song came from. The song allowed me to put it on paper, and release it from my mind, and it turned into a major theme on the record.” — David Quinn

Photo credit: Jess Myers

LISTEN: Justin Farren, “Fixer Upper”

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Artist: Justin Farren
Hometown: Sacramento, California
Song: “Fixer Upper”
Album: Pretty Free
Release Date: October 23, 2020

In Their Words: “A reflection on the experience of building the home I currently live in with my wife and daughter. With no previous experience, we broke ground in 2004 and finished construction in late 2007. As the financial market collapsed, our janky new home was initially appraised at a value less than the cost of the materials it took to build it, let alone the three years of exhaustive labor. I felt dumb. 🙂 On the whole album, I used the only acoustic guitar I’ve ever owned. It’s a cheap Simon & Patrick I bought when I was a teenager. The electric guitar is a Les Paul Standard that a friend left at my house 12 years ago. I’m not much of a guitar nerd. I feel like they’re all pretty similar. I took an acoustic approach on this song because it’s about building a home. So a natural ‘wooden’ sound seemed right.” — Justin Farren

Photo credit: Wes Davis

LISTEN: William Prince, “Gospel First Nation”

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Artist: William Prince
Hometown: Peguis First Nation – Manitoba
Song: “Gospel First Nation”
Album: Gospel First Nation
Release Date: October 23, 2020
Label: Glassnote

In Their Words: “Gospel is by definition ‘the good news.’ These songs were capable of lifting spirits in the darkest of times. I witnessed it on many occasions. They provided hope and relief. A subject I addressed earlier this year. Maybe that message needs continuing throughout this time. I am as much the grandson of Chief Peguis, the founder of Peguis First Nation, as I am Edward Prince Sr., one of the founding Christian pastors of that same community. Gospel First Nation is an amalgamation of two very important realms in my life.” — William Prince

Photo credit: Jsenftphotography

LISTEN: Sarah Dooley, “Is This Heartbreak?”

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Artist: Sarah Dooley
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “Is This Heartbreak?”
Album: Is This Heartbreak?
Release Date: October 23, 2020

In Their Words: “This song is kind of the thesis statement of the album. I wrote it when I was falling for someone, and terrified. I’d been burned badly fairly recently and yet there I was, making myself vulnerable again. You feel like an idiot. Like, will I ever learn? It’s about that terrifying moment where you lose control and let emotions take over. Your brain’s instinct is always to protect your heart, and attempt to prepare for the two options that every relationship presents: ‘is this love? is this heartbreak?’ But ultimately, living a full life means taking that plunge, regardless of future pain, fully knowing the devastation that may wait for you on the other side.” — Sarah Dooley

Photo credit: Carly Hoogendyk

LISTEN: Wes Corbett, “Boss Fight”

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Artist: Wes Corbett
Hometown: Bainbridge island, Washington; now Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Boss Fight”
Album: Cascade
Release Date: December 4, 2020
Label: Padiddle

In Their Words: “‘Boss Fight’ was written in 2014 while I was still a professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston. I set out to write a high-energy minor melody in the style of Ronnie McCoury, knowing that I would use it when I finally made this record. It remained unnamed until we finished tracking it in the studio, and while talking over edits we all agreed it felt like the music you hear when you fight the final boss in a video game, thus the title ‘Boss Fight’ was born. Another memory from that day is how I found myself in disbelief hearing how much life this incredible group of my peers breathed into this track, and the whole record for that matter. Chris Eldridge, who produced Cascade, in particular had some invaluable insight on how to make this tune move the way it does. I am so grateful for everyone who made this music possible!” — Wes Corbett

Photo credit: Kaitlyn Raitz

LISTEN: Suzzy Roche & Lucy Wainwright Roche, “Jane”

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Artist: Suzzy Roche & Lucy Wainwright Roche
Hometown: New York, New York
Song: “Jane”
Album: I Can Still Hear You
Release Date: October 30, 2020
Label: StorySound

In Their Words: “For my 16th birthday, my aunt Terre gave me a cassette tape of some demos that she and my aunt Maggie recorded in 1973. ‘Jane’ was one of the songs on the tape and it was immediately one of my favorites. The song had never been included on any album, and for many years I thought it would be a great song to record. It finally found a home on this album. I particularly like the line, ‘It’s like remembering rain in the sun, or remembering sun in the rain.’” — Lucy Wainwright Roche

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

LISTEN: The Mastersons, “I’m Your Girl”

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Artist: The Mastersons
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “I’m Your Girl”
Album: Red, White & I Love You Too EP
Release Date: October 16, 2020
Label: Red House Records

In Their Words: “We watched the first episode of Ken Burns’ Country Music and Eleanor wrote this after trying — unsuccessfully — to go to sleep.” — Chris Masterson

“I had Maybelle Carter’s guitar in my head and a little bit of Townes Van Zandt’s and Woody Guthrie’s spirits guiding me. I already had the first verse, which is more abstract, written down in my notebook and then I started thinking about the plight of immigrants today and the rest of the song just flowed out.” — Eleanor Masterson

Photo credit: Curtis Wayne Millard