LISTEN: Will Kimbrough, “My Right Wing Friend”

Artist: Will Kimbrough
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “My Right Wing Friend”
Album: Spring Break
Release Date: October 23, 2020
Label: Daphne/Soundly

In Their Words: “I wrote ‘My Right Wing Friend’ after reading a dear old friend’s Twitter posts. I knew if we communicated personally, we would still be those dear old friends who shared 40 years of memories, from high school through his college and my early touring years, through the time we raised our children. We’d always been political opposites. And we’d always had friendly debates and agreed to disagree. It’s tougher now, in a way — with a glance, you can find something to hate about people you love. I am learning to communicate personally with my right wing friend. That way, we keep our friendship alive. This is a love song to friendship. As my friend said, after he heard the song for the first time, ‘Come over here and let me kiss you on the lips, my left wing friend.’ Still laughing. Still friends.” — Will Kimbrough


Photo credit: Sadie Kimbrough

BGS 5+5: Grant-Lee Phillips

Artist: Grant-Lee Phillips
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Latest album: Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Pistol, Ranchero

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Neil Young I suppose. His music hit me at just the right time. I had been playing guitar for two years when I first heard “Down by the River” and “Cortez the Killer.” I was 16. My ears were wide open. Young’s songs spoke to me like no other. He was also the first singer I saw in concert. All alone, with a rack of acoustic guitars, an upright piano on one side of the stage, a grand on the other, a pump organ. I was mesmerized.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

My family loved music. Hee Haw was a big one. We never missed a show. My grandma loved Elvis and Johnny Cash. The excitement I felt when Roy Clark played “Orange Blossom Special” or “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” on the electric guitar, I wanted to feel that all the time. The TV show Austin City Limits introduced me to Lightning Hopkins, John Prine and Tom Waits. I recall those moments like yesterday.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

The hardest prolonged period of song wrestling was back in the ‘90s after Grant Lee Buffalo had put out a few albums. The pressure was on to deliver. The question was, deliver what to whom? I did my best to put all that noise out of my head. You can go from dancing on a ledge like Buster Keaton one minute to vertigo the next. Thankfully I had come across the film director Andrei Tarkovsky’s defiant book Sculpting in Light and that became a temporary manifesto.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

I paint a great deal these days. Landscapes and still life. It slows me down and demands another degree of focus. Composition involves strategic thinking but there’s a wild side to painting. I like that balance. It gives me insight to making music.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Tennessee is one of the greenest states in the country. I’m never so in tune with my own spirit as when I surrounded by elms and oaks. During this pandemic our family has made a point to take a drive every day. We drive through the country, roll down the windows and breathe some fresh air. One of my other rituals involves drawing. Every day I set aside 20-30 minutes to sketch. I have notebooks full of trees, landscapes in the works. Trees, clouds — that’s my sanctuary. Some of these images find their way into my lyrics, which is just another way of painting a picture.


Photo credit: Denise Siegel-Phillips

LISTEN: Great Peacock, “Heavy Load”

Artist: Great Peacock
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Heavy Load”
Album: Forever Better Worse
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Label: Soundly Music

In Their Words: “I don’t totally know what this song means or is about. I just know that it makes me feel a lot of different emotions. We love so many things throughout the course of our life. Love is experienced and given and received in so many different ways for all manner of experiences, memories, places, things, and people. I think the real message of this song is that love isn’t always an easy thing, but you can’t give up on it. You have to give and receive it. I’m telling myself that in this song. I’m not singing to anyone else. I’m singing to me.” — Andrew Nelson, Great Peacock


Photo credit: Harrison Hudson

LISTEN: Mandy Barnett, “A Fool Such as I”

Artist: Mandy Barnett
Hometown: Crossville, Tennessee
Song: “A Fool Such as I”
Album: A Nashville Songbook
Release Date: August 21, 2020
Label: Melody Place LLC

In Their Words: “The first time I heard “A Fool Such as I,” I was just a kid. Baillie & the Boys had a big hit on it on the ‘80s. Later on, I became familiar with some of the other great versions by Hank Snow and Elvis Presley. Every year we would play the after party at the BMI Awards and would always include this iconic Nashville song in our set list.” — Mandy Barnett


Photo credit: Jiro Schneider

LISTEN: Dianne Davidson, “Sounds of the City”

Artist: Dianne Davidson
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Sounds Of The City”
Album: Perigon: Full Circle
Release Date: August 28, 2020
Label: Perigon Music

In Their Words: “I was 19 or 20. I was already being a bit beaten up by the business. I spent two weeks on the road with The Moody Blues as opening act while I was touring my third album, Mountain Mama. Sometimes on those quick one-nighter tours, you can lose your bearings and realize you don’t quite know where you are. I was in a high-rise hotel, down below was traffic and noise and people milling about. I felt like a lost soul and wrote the song to center myself again. As fate would have it, I never recorded it until now. I was fortunate enough to have it recorded by Tracy Nelson on her Homemade Songs album in 1978. I was so grateful for her version of it. I knew I needed to do it on this record. It just belonged. The feeling just poured out and I was blessed with the beauty of my friends who played and sang on it. The B3 player, Austin Wireman, wasn’t even born when I wrote it. Full Circle.” — Dianne Davidson


Photo provided by the artist.

WATCH: The Alex Leach Band, “Take the Long Way Home”

Artist: The Alex Leach Band
Hometown: Jacksboro, Tennessee
Song: “Take the Long Way Home”
Release Date: May 15, 2020
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “After writing the song, my wife and I had a vision of how we thought the video would look. With plenty of help from our Mountain Home family and our band, we were able to make our vision a reality; complete with a ’60s, bright orange VW Microbus and bell-bottoms for all! Each of us got to unleash a bit of our inner, free spirit for the video, and we think the outcome gives off the perfect vibe. We hope you enjoy this groovy journey with us as we ‘Take the Long Way Home.'” — Alex Leach


Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

WATCH: Molly Tuttle, “Standing on the Moon” (Feat. Taylor Goldsmith)

Artist: Molly Tuttle
Hometown: Palo Alto, California / Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Standing on the Moon” (Feat. Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes)
Album: …but i’d rather be with you
Release Date: August 28, 2020
Record Label: Compass Records

In Their Words: “I didn’t grow up listening to a lot of Grateful Dead music, but being raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Dead was part of the mythology of my family and the area I grew up in (kind of how I imagine people who grew up in Tennessee, where I live now, might feel about Dolly Parton). Our specific family lore was that Jerry Garcia had gone to my high school (Palo Alto High) and my mom’s older sister, my Aunt Titia, knew them and used to take guitar lessons from Bob Weir in Menlo Park. That’s a roundabout way of explaining that this song means so much to me, because it brings me back to my roots. Even though I love Nashville, sometimes I do feel like I’m standing on the moon wishing I were with my friends and family in San Francisco. The line, ‘A lovely view of heaven, but I’d rather be with you’ is my favorite and it’s why I named the album …but I’d rather be with you. Life is messy and imperfect but I’d rather be here in it with all of you!” — Molly Tuttle

“One of the greatest feats as a musician, in my opinion, is taking a Grateful Dead song and creating a version of it that goes beyond the stigmatized identity of a ‘Dead Cover.’ It’s hard to do and takes a lot of courage to make it happen. But Molly reached for that brass ring and then somehow even went beyond it. Her version has given the song new parameters, makes me feel new things, and surpasses any sort of referential quality and becomes Molly’s own song. I’m just happy I got to be one small part of bringing it to life.” — Taylor Goldsmith


Photo credit: Zach Pigg

WATCH: Stephen Mougin, “The Song That I Call Home”

Artist: Stephen Mougin
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “The Song That I Call Home”
Album: Ordinary Soul
Release Date: July 31, 2020
Label: Dark Shadow Recording

In Their Words: “I discovered years ago, like many of my peers, I only really feel like myself when I’m onstage, in the studio, writing songs, or somehow involved in the creation of music. The normal world seems wild, unfamiliar, and uncomfortable until I have the chance to get back inside a song. Erin McDermott and I shared that sentiment back when we wrote ‘The Song That I Call Home’ as an homage to our muse: ‘Lyrical directions for an ordinary soul/ Look past my imperfections while the music makes me whole.’ It’s always a blast to have Sam Bush and Ned Luberecki in the same place, both musically and comically! This was an extra treat, as it’s the first music video I’ve released as an artist AND it includes my wife, Jana. I’m proud of our DSR Video team for their hard work, especially since I had to be on the ‘wrong’ side of the camera for much of this shoot!” — Stephen Mougin


Photo credit: Elliot Lopes

LISTEN: India Ramey, “Montgomery Behind Me”

Artist: India Ramey
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Montgomery Behind Me”
Album: Shallow Graves
Release Date: September 4, 2020

In Their Words: “‘Montgomery Behind Me’ is somewhat autobiographical. I got married young, the first time. My first husband (who is a nice man) was from a ‘good family’ in Montgomery. I was not, so I was a square peg in a round hole. I just never fit, not with him, not with anyone there. I felt guilty for not being happy and not making everyone else happy. Eventually I had to accept that my time there was an exercise in futility. I also had to muster the courage to accept who I am and be not just OK with it, but be happy about it. When I would think about leaving, I had this vision of me heading down that long, flat highway with the small Montgomery skyline behind me and never looking back. Above and beyond the personal stuff, this song is a refusal to people-please and an acceptance and liberation of one’s true self.” — India Ramey

India Ramey · Montgomery Behind Me

Photo credit: Stacie Huckeba

LISTEN: Grizzly Goat, “Wallowa, OR 1877”

Artist: Grizzly Goat
Hometown: Provo, Utah/ Knoxville, Tennessee
Song: “Wallowa, OR 1877”
Album: Bound to Go to Waste
Release Date: May 29, 2020

In Their Words: “While in Oregon, performing in the Joseph Mountain Jubilee festival, I spotted a statue of Chief Joseph. This sparked my curiosity as a history enthusiast and I soon listened to the 18-hour audiobook, Thunder in the Mountains. I learned that the area had been home to Joseph’s Nez Perce tribe which the US government wanted to claim for white settlers. Despite Chief Joseph’s efforts to negotiate rights for his people peacefully, a war broke out causing the tribe to flee 1,170 miles before they were surrounded near the Canadian border. When this ‘spaghetti western’ melody came to me, I was inspired to shed light on the story of Chief Joseph and a neglected piece of American history.” — Nate Waggoner, Grizzly Goat


Photo credit: Ryan Carter