Artist:A Tale of Two Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “The Letter” Album:A Tale of Two EP Release Date: September 17, 2021
In Their Words: “‘The Letter’ is a very important song for us. We wanted to capture the romanticism behind writing a letter to someone and it feels as though the song took on a whole new meaning during the pandemic. The main essence of A Tale of Two is focused on live performance. We want to bring a record to life on the stage every time we perform. This video was special to us, as we were lucky to have Nashville fiddler Kyle Pudenz on board, who is a spectacular musician and person.” — Stephanie Adlington and Aaron Lessard, A Tale of Two
Artist:Tony Kamel Hometown: Austin, Texas Song: “This River” Album:Back Down Home Release Date: September 24, 2021 Label: The Next Waltz
In Their Words: “Making music for a living is a privilege afforded to few. If you’re lucky, people may even want to see you play it. That’s a wonderful thing, but it comes with some caveats. You miss your family and friends. Even when you’re home, you play at night or on weekends when they’re home from work. But that’s just part of the deal. Would be great to make some good money doing it, too. Maybe one day…. We recorded this on the pre-production day in the studio, the day before we really got started. It was supposed to be a demo. Josh Blue played an old 1960s Maestro drum machine while I took a stab at it. It sounded really cool so we just kept it and added slide guitar by Geoff Queen and harmonies by Kelley Mickwee later.” — Tony Kamel
Artist:Jaelee Roberts Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Think Again” Label: Mountain Home Music Company
In Their Words: “I heard ‘Think Again’ for the first time a couple of years ago and I knew immediately that I had to record it! I love how the songwriters (Marla Cannon-Goodman and Shane Stockton) told such a vivid story… songs that you can ‘see’ and ‘feel’ are my favorite! I had so much fun during the filming (I really loved driving the convertible and the drone was awesome) and I am SO excited to be able to bring this song to life in my very first music video. There are a couple of lines in the lyrics where the video and the song really connected: ‘If you’re standin’ at the screen door, heart laid open out in your hand’ and ‘I’m gonna find a spot to pull off on the shoulder’ — watch for those scenes in the video. I’m just really thankful I got to record ‘Think Again’ and I sure hope everyone enjoys the video for it!” — Jaelee Roberts
Artist:Sara Trunzo Hometown: Unity, Maine Song: “Nashville Time” Album:Cabin Fever Dream EP Release Date: September 24, 2021
In Their Words: “One reason I was excited to have this song show up for me was that it encapsulates my most recent chapter of orbiting the axes of Nashville and coastal Maine. At first edit, I worried the song mixed too many different images and place-based metaphors, but that’s actually a good reflection of my voice and life. I’m a northerner who loves the south, a flip-flopper between music and community organizing, a New England veggie farmer with visions of sequin dresses and high-end Nashville recording studios dancing through her head. I’m not a purist. I often wish I was, because it’d be handy to be able to say, ‘I’m a teacher and I live in Bangor,’ but being a seasonal, migratory, hybrid creature seems to be more in the cards for me.
“Because I had lived in Maine for most of my adult life, coastal life and the water have shown up in many songs. I have REALLY missed the ocean during the seasons I lived in Nashville. ‘Nashville Time’ surprised me with the amount of nautical references that stuck, as I didn’t have much firsthand experience with sailing at the time of writing. But since coming back to Maine after the start of COVID, I have fallen in love with sailing to the extent that I’m now living aboard a 30ft sloop on Penobscot Bay.” — Sara Trunzo
Photo credit: Chip Dillon / Blue Horse Photography
Artist:George Jackson featuring Wes Corbett Hometown: Christchurch, New Zealand Song: “Mississippi Sawyer” Album:Hair & Hide Release Date: Single, August 25; Album, October 29 Label: George Jackson Records
In Their Words: “I live just up the road from the house where the legendary musician John Hartford once lived, on the edge of the Cumberland River in Madison, Tennessee, and for this live video we had the amazing opportunity to record the take in the crow’s nest on top of Hartford’s old riverside home. The current owners were very generous to let us film in that space and they even keep John’s old chair up there, a nod to when he used to sit in that same room overlooking the river and play banjo himself. It was magical to get to play in that room!
“Wes Corbett and I played a version of ‘Mississippi Sawyer’ together while we were warming up together one afternoon by jamming on some fiddle tunes in preparation for arranging some music to record on my banjo and fiddle duets album, Hair & Hide. It was immediately so much fun and had such a great energy to it that I decided then and there that I wanted to record it with Wes for the album. This tune lends itself really well as a way to bring together elements of old-time fiddling that I bring to the table and of virtuosic bluegrass banjo playing from Wes, as well as being a great vehicle to muddle the lines of both genres as we play it together.
“I ended up taking a deep dive on some old recorded versions of ‘Mississippi Sawyer’ from various old-time fiddlers after that initial jam, and came across two really unique versions that I loved from a couple of legendary West Virginia old-time fiddlers, Ernie Carpenter and Edden Hammons. I liked elements of both of their versions so I decided to take inspiration from Ernie’s A part and Edden’s B part to create this really fun and unique take on this great old chestnut fiddle tune that’s endlessly fun to play. Wes is one of our generation’s great picking banjo players and it was so fun to get to work on this tune with him and hear how he improvises around the melody so fluidly. I hope you all enjoy this!” — George Jackson
Artist:Jamie McDell Hometown: Mangawhai, New Zealand Song: “Dream Team” Album:Jamie McDell (early 2022) Label: ABC Music (AU/NZ)
In Their Words: “We’d stuck it out for about nine months in Toronto. Coming from the coast of New Zealand, the pull of the ocean and the nature we were used to was becoming too hard to ignore. We were unsettled and uncomfortable, but the opportunities of living in the big city were helping us survive. Rain outside, twelve stories up, we’d finished watching Chernobyl and the bathroom had nice acoustics. I had started to get a little bored with the way I was playing my guitar so I put my capo on the 10th fret and started to pick away to a minor-based, squeaky chord progression. The first verse started to flow and the tales that were coming to mind were inspired by those prices we’re willing to pay for power and possession. I’d noticed ‘Dream Team’ on captions of people’s social media posts and it became relevant to the sentiment in the verses.” — Jamie McDell
Artist:Side Pony Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Bad Ideas” Album:Lucky Break Release Date: October 8, 2021 Label: Mule Kick Records
In Their Words: “This tune was actually inspired by a person in our life who had nothing but poor suggestions to offer us and it’s a discussion as to whether the fallout is worth it. But it morphed into a celebration of our own bad ideas, which are decidedly more fun. Except our latest bad idea, which was to make our own Laverne & Shirley-esque sitcom for the music video collaboration with East Nashville filmmaker Scot Sax.” — Alice Wallace, Side Pony
“Yeah, that’s one song I’m glad we got out of idea land and into tangible form. Getting those impulses down on paper and embedded in an Alt-C rock stomp can be better than embedding them into your personal life. If you can’t beat your bad ideas, join ’em!” — Caitlin Cannon, Side Pony
Artist:Chris Coole Hometown: Toronto, Ontario Song: “My Name Is Lie” Release Date: August 13, 2021
In Their Words: “I guess this song is a banjo-y meditation on the post-truth era we seem so hopelessly bogged down in. It’s sung from the perspective of the lie itself. I was inspired by the Dock Boggs song, ‘A Conversation With Death’ or ‘O Death,’ where death is given a voice. So, if a lie could talk, ‘My Name Is Lie’ is what I imagine it might be saying in today’s world. I’m not sure how obvious it is, but the last two verses deal with the Pandora’s box that is social media and how it has allowed lies to access ‘light speed’ so to speak.” — Chris Coole
Artist:Tim Easton Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Speed Limit” Album:You Don’t Really Know Me Release Date: Aug 27, 2021 Label: Black Mesa Records
In Their Words: “My friend Tree Butcher said the opening line in a sentence and I just wrote it down. It became a song very quickly and it’s the first tune where my daughter helped sort out some lyrics as well. Both my mother and father make an appearance in this one, so the family theme is established further. This is a healing song that is played with a lot of energy to remind you to slow down. The chorus lyric ‘when the pain of staying the same outweighs the strain of making changes’ is an inner rhyme sequence of pain, stay, same, weigh, strain, make, and change — seven rhymes in just 13 words. This is something I learned from listening to hip-hop, or something I was reminded of by listening to hip-hop. ‘The worst enemy I ever had is the one inside my head’ is a notion I got from the poet Gregory Corso who said that the worst critic he ever had was himself.” — Tim Easton
Artist:Sean Devine Hometown: Livingston, Montana Song: “Clay Bluffs” Album:Here For It All Release Date: September 3, 2021 Label: Crazy Mountain
In Their Words: “The young woman in this story has some hard choices to make. She already knew that, and then they got harder. This story is not unique to eastern Wyoming; that’s just where I happened to overhear part of it, at a gas station Burger King on a cold January night. I didn’t know these young people, but then again I do. They have been my family and I have been them myself. That’s how I know this girl is going to be ok.” — Sean Devine
Photo credit: John Zumpano
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