WATCH: Ross Hammond, “Blue Hoodie”

Artist: Ross Hammond
Hometown: Sacramento, California
Song: “Blue Hoodie”
Album: It’s Been Here All Along
Release Date: October 23, 2021
Label: Prescott Recordings

In Their Words: “This song is dedicated to the inner circle of friends and family that my wife, daughter, and I have relied on throughout the pandemic. As we maneuver and pivot through this time it’s a blessing to have a crew. This song, like all of the songs on this record, was made with a resonator guitar on a two track reel-to-reel recorder. All of these songs use a Freeport tuning (CGCGCD) and the themes are written to be improvised on. For the video I made a collage using a grocery bag and some Polaroid and Sprocket photos from the past year. I thought using physical photos in a video shoot would give the sense of vagueness to the faces, like anyone who saw this could imagine their own crew in a ghostlike, snapshot form.” — Ross Hammond


Photo credit: Lola Hammond

LISTEN: Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, “Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss”

Artist: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
Song: “Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss”
Album: All the Good Times
Release Date: July 10, 2020
Record Label: Acony Records

In Their Words: “TO OUR FRIENDS AND FANS, for reasons better discussed in the history books, in the Spring of 2020 Gillian and I dusted off an old tape machine and did some home recording. Sometimes we bumped the microphone, sometimes the tape ran out, but in the end we captured performances of some songs we love. Five are first takes and five took a little more doing, but they all helped pass the time and held our interest in playback enough that we wanted to share them with you. We sincerely hope that you enjoy All the Good Times.” — Gillian Welch & David Rawlings


Photo of Gillian Welch by Gillian Welch

LISTEN: Dietrich Strause, “Last Man Standing on the Sun”

Artist: Dietrich Strause
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Song: “Last Man Standing on the Sun”
Album: Last Man Standing on the Sun
Release Date: March 13, 2020

In Their Words: “I once asked my 92-year-old grandfather what he knows now that he wishes he had known when he was my age. He said, ‘I wish I had known that everything is in constant motion and that the fundamental shape of the universe is a wave.’ With that as an impression, I wrote ‘Last Man Standing on the Sun’ looking up at the stars and sky from an island in the middle of a lake, in the middle of the mountains in New Hampshire, thinking about the constant decay and renewal of love, purpose, and nature. I wanted to record this song in particular for this album because it seemed fitting for the constant motion and physical limitations of working on a reel-to-reel tape machine.” — Dietrich Strause


Photo credit: Rose Cousins