Tag: Song Premiere

LISTEN: Mary Flower, “Crooked Rag”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Mary Flower
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Song: “Crooked Rag”
Album: Livin’ with the Blues Again
Release Date: August 17, 2019
Label: Little Village Foundation

In Their Words: “Most of my instrumentals start with finding a groove that piques my interest. ‘Crooked Rag’ was developed around a 12 bar form in G, but with a ragtime feel. It is basically variations in the key of G. While writing, I kept after it, working my way up the neck until I ran out of musical ideas! As is the case for many of my tunes, I don’t sit down to write something. I fool around with new ideas much like a puzzle that needs solving. I work on it until I feel it’s complete and decide if it’s worth saving!” — Mary Flower

LISTEN: Will Payne Harrison, “Anne Marie”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Will Payne Harrison
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Anne Marie”
Album: Living With Ghosts
Release Date: September 6, 2019

In Their Words: “This song is about a relationship I had with a girl from northern Kentucky who loved me, but kept her distance because she didn’t want to leave her hometown. She’s a Catholic girl, hence the line about Saint Anthony, the patron saint of lost things. I initially wrote the song just for her to hear and it was never meant to be on the album, but my producer Brett Stewart heard it and decided that we were definitely recording it.

We were at the end of the vocal session when we decided to get the gang vocals on the last chorus and I ended up absolutely loving that part. Meredith Krygowski from Adrian + Meredith came in and tracked the entire string session in a couple of hours, really helping the last chorus explode with the emotional turmoil the song needed. The backing band on this track are my good friends and Nouveau Electric Records recording artists The Rayo Brothers along with Jim McGee on guitar.” — Will Payne Harrison

Photo credit: Joelle Grace Photography

LISTEN: Kat Wallace and David Sasso, “Farewell to Trion”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Kat Wallace and David Sasso
Hometown: New Haven, Connecticut
Song: “Farewell to Trion”
Album: Stuff of Stars
Release Date: August 16, 2019

In Their Words: “We worked up our arrangement of this Alabama fiddle tune after David learned it from late fiddler Stacy Phillips at a local old-time jam just a week before his untimely passing. We took inspiration from the fiddle and mandocello recordings of Darol Anger and Mike Marshall while pulling from our own classical roots. We enjoyed playing around with classical form and phrasing while keeping that good old-time groove. The arrangement builds to a climax where fiddle and mandocello trade the C [third] part hook just before a reharmonized outro. This track is one of two instrumentals on our debut album, which leans on our shared love of folk and bluegrass and showcases our original songwriting.” — Kat Wallace and David Sasso

Photo credit: Naomi Libby

LISTEN: Ward Hayden & the Outliers, “Hackensack”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Ward Hayden & the Outliers
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Song: “Hackensack”
Album: Can’t Judge a Book
Release Date: August 24, 2019

In Their Words: “‘Hackensack’ almost didn’t make it on the album, but it’s ended up being one of my favorite recordings. In the early 2000s Fountains of Wayne had a huge hit with ‘Stacy’s Mom.’ I wasn’t wild about ‘Stacy’s Mom’ but I always loved when that CD got put on because the song right after it, ‘Hackensack,’ was such an aching love song with such a catchy and pretty chorus. All while telling the story of a guy who never left his hometown, who’s waiting around for the girl of his dreams to come back home. Meanwhile she’s out pursuing her dreams and might not ever know he exists.

“‘Hackensack’ has a lot of those elements that have always drawn me to good country music, and Fountains of Wayne wrote it in a pop-rock format. Our drummer Josh Kiggans really pushed for this song to get recorded with our own approach and I’m thankful he did. We made some changes to the arrangement and put in elements like Cody’s weeping pedal steel part, the low brooding baritone guitar lines, and Paul put down a more driving bass line.

“I once even had one of Boston’s best-known songwriters come up after we played it and say, ‘That song’s gonna make you famous,’ but they walked away before I had the chance to say it was actually someone else’s song we were covering. We did our best to do it justice and draw out the emotion and honesty of the lyrics, and we hope it connects with a lot of other people the way it connected with us.” — Ward Hayden

Photo credit: Niclas Bågerheim

LISTEN: Anna Vogelzang, “Icarus”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Anna Vogelzang
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Icarus”
Album: Beacon
Release Date: August 9, 2019; Beacon releases October 4, 2019
Label: Paper Anchor Music

In Their Words: “‘Icarus’ came from a place of reveling in self-acceptance. We can spend so much of our lives looking outward — at something we want that we can’t have, at someone who seems to be doing better than we are, or even at a hypothetical future when things will be better, or maybe just different. The first line of the song hit me all at once — and seemed like the perfect way to practice presence. This song felt like it was showing up as a celebration of acceptance, an anthem about being ok with where you’re at.

We are saturated in a deep culture of wanting what others have — but if you stop to assess, is that something that you want for yourself? Did you even really want it in the first place? I feel like more than half of the time I didn’t. I’d just convinced myself that I did. I feel like the day I wrote this, the universe was telling me, “This is where you’re at. This is it, right now — why not celebrate it?” — Anna Vogelzang

Photo credit: Carla Coffing

LISTEN: Martin Hayes and Brooklyn Rider, “Jenny’s Welcome Home to Charlie”

Posted on by Editor

Artist name: Martin Hayes and Brooklyn Rider
Hometown: Madrid, Spain (Martin Hayes); New York City and Boston (Brooklyn Rider)
Song: “Jenny’s Welcome Home to Charlie”
Album: The Butterfly
Release Date: August 9, 2019
Label: In a Circle Records

In Their Words: “I was about 14 when I first became familiar with the tune ‘Jenny’s Welcome to Charlie’ from a recording of a fiddler by the name Kathleen Collins. The tune is commonly known in the tradition and is a standard tune that is popular with fiddle players and is not associated with any one regional style. It is alleged that the tune title references Bonny Prince Charlie and his mistress Jenny. I’ve been playing this tune all my life and am very excited to be able to finally release a version that I believe is the first version of this tune to be arranged for fiddle and string quartet.” — Martin Hayes

Photo credit: Erin Baiano

LISTEN: Ashley Sofia, “Adirondack Dreams”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Ashley Sofia
Hometown: Ticonderoga, New York
Song: “Adirondack Dreams”
Album: Shades of Blue
Release Date: September 6, 2019

In Their Words: “I grew up a quarter mile down the road from my grandparents’ apple orchard in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. I was built by that landscape — raised running wild — and like an old pastoral poem, I felt I needed to honor my home. My dad is a big conservationist and he taught me how to play guitar on our back porch. During those sessions, John Denver was a staple, especially his wilderness songs.

“Then when I came to Nashville, I got incredibly homesick. I was completely unprepared for the oppressive summer heat, I didn’t know a single fishing hole, and I certainly didn’t know what kind of snakes I needed to be worrying about. And most of all, I missed my family. I’d close my eyes all the time and daydream about those mountains.

“One night I was alone in my apartment, desperately missing home, and I was flooded with the imagery and feelings of what it would be like to get back there. I recorded everything I felt, and I knew by the end of it I was tipping my cap to John Denver, my dad, and the mountains that raised me. Playing it felt like going home.” — Ashley Sofia

Photo credit: Josh Doke

LISTEN: Humbird, “48 Hours”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Humbird
Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Song: “48 Hours”
Album: Pharmakon
Release Date: August 30, 2019

In Their Words: “’48 Hours’ was written after a double shift as a pizza waitress in south Minneapolis. It is a reflection on how we change depending on the circumstances we are in. I’m not sure if the song is a love letter to the craft of making music or an existential crisis — probably both. The lyrics incorporate the experience of modern technology addiction and performing in empty bars, of feeling trapped and then empowered — all within the same 48-hour period. I’ve recorded this song a handful of times over the last three years, but it never quite felt right. It was the first tune I showed Shane Leonard as we began working together on this upcoming album. We were finally able to communicate the song in the way that felt grounded and true. C.J. Camerieri’s horn parts were the final addition and make the arrangement soar.” — Siri Undlin, Humbird

Photo credit: Kendall Rock

LISTEN: Nels Andrews, “Table by the Kitchen”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Nels Andrews
Hometown: Santa Cruz, California
Song: “Table by the Kitchen”
Album: Pigeon & The Crow
Release Date: August 9, 2019

In Their Words: “This song is about a type of FOMO (fear of missing out), as we’re bombarded with the certainty that everyone else’s ‘perfectly curated’ life has all the things that our lives are missing. While there have always been observers in a crowd, this phenomenon has impacted most of us, feeding our insecurities and multiplying our impossible wishes. The song, while upbeat, showcases themes from the album, like how we juggle our relationship with youth (and with aging); it’s also about the impact of youth culture, as it is sweet-filtered onto our small screens, and it is considered a nod to the ever-youthful Peter Pan who misses out on other things by staying young. The song also has a Murphy Bed in it, which I’ve been wanting to get into one of my songs for years. I love the little piano riff Stelth Ulvang added from the funky upright he kept in the garage when he was living in Santa Cruz in between Lumineers tours.” — Nels Andrews

Photo credit: Bradley Cox

LISTEN: Mike and the Moonpies, “If You Want a Fool Around”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Mike and the Moonpies
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “If You Want a Fool Around”
Album: Cheap Silver and Solid Country Gold
Release Date: August 2, 2019

In Their Words: “I first heard ‘If You Want a Fool Around’ on an album that Brian Black, Clint’s older brother, had released in the mid ’90s when he was living with us at my dad’s house. Even as a teenager, it was one of the most clever songs I’d ever heard. I knew that I would sing that song one day, but I didn’t have the right band or opportunity back then. I had forgotten about it until last summer when producer Adam Odor and I were discussing songs for the Abbey Road record. I played Brian’s version for him and we immediately knew it was perfect for the record and how great the chord changes would sound with the London Symphony Orchestra behind them. I had finally found the perfect time to sing that song.” — Mike Harmeier, Mike and the Moonpies

Photo credit: Benjamin Yanto Photography