Videos Archive - Page 9 of 34 - The Bluegrass Situation

LISTEN: Monica Taylor, “Train Take Me Away”

Artist: Monica Taylor
Hometown: Perkins, Oklahoma
Song: “Train Take Me Away”
Album: Trains, Rivers, & Trails
Release Date: July 29, 2022
Label: Horton Records

In Their Words: “I think this is my homage to my older family members who took to the trains during the Great Depression to find work… and the coming home, not ever wanting to leave home again. Jimmy LaFave called me one day years ago and asked if I had a song for a children’s album. I said I’d think about it and decided to write a song with states and things that they are known for, with a Woody Guthrie spin on it, as I have written songs before. The album he had heard about had all the songs it needed before he even suggested it, so I just started to play it at home.

“One night I was staying at the beautiful old railroad depot that someone had donated to my Cherokee Maidens bandmate Robin Macy and her Bartlett Arboretum in Belle Plaine, Kansas, south of Wichita, where she and her husband Kenny White live. We had gigs the next week and so the whole band met there to travel. She had a little guest room in the old depot. What a magical place the arboretum was to call my second home! I walked around by myself in the depot, strumming the guitar and started singing the children’s song I had written, thinking — it really needs something to make a song worthy of a set list. Ha ha! For my own band, The Red Dirt Ramblers. It needed a chorus. A change from the verses in a big way. So I went down to a minor chord. That usually help spark the writing senses 😉 I came up with a chorus right there late one night in the old train depot! I scrubbed on that chorus a bit that night and the next morning before we loaded up, I played it for Robin. She loved it! So I finished another of my train songs in an old train depot, the train tracks right there blowin’ throughout the night, shaking the timbers of the building.” — Monica Taylor

WATCH: Bill Anderson, “Someday It’ll All Make Sense” (Featuring Dolly Parton)

Artist: Bill Anderson
Hometown: Decatur, Georgia; now Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Someday It’ll All Make Sense” (Featuring Dolly Parton)
Album: As Far As I Can See: The Best Of
Release Date: June 10, 2022
Label: MCA Records/UMe

In Their Words: “Hopefully, our song can help bring a bit of levity to a world that seems upside down and sideways so much of the time these days. If it can, music will have once again proven itself to be the optimal healer.” — Bill Anderson

“Working with my ol’ buddy Bill Anderson was the most meaningful fun I’ve had in years. I love the song we sang, I love how we sounded together on it and getting to do a video with him was just icing on the cake. I hope the fans enjoy it as much as we enjoyed being together on it.” — Dolly Parton

LISTEN: Mary Bragg, “Panorama”

Artist: Mary Bragg
Hometown: Swainsboro, Georgia
Song: “Panorama”
Album: Mary Bragg
Release Date: September 30, 2022
Label: Tone Tree Music

In Their Words: “‘Panorama’ describes a perspective shift, when your awareness of a place, and of the relationships surrounding that place, change drastically. It’s a view you can only find once you take a look at it from, say, the top of a Ferris wheel at the county fair, or many years later, from a thousand miles away. I’m originally from a pretty small town, where knowing almost every person comes with a series of interesting turns. And when you go off and live your own life, you’re bound to disappoint people at some point (as it turns out). It could be easy to write them off, but for me, I couldn’t; so I keep showing up and being myself, and just as quickly as an apple falls from a tree, they surprise me and prove my assumptions wrong, meeting me halfway with love and kindness.” — Mary Bragg

WATCH: Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Jerry Douglas Reunite at DelFest

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway have spent 2022 releasing new music, touring the country, and tearing up the festival circuit. In May, they were joined at DelFest by none other than Dobro hero Jerry Douglas, who is also the co-producer of their new album. Douglas, Tuttle, and company give not only rip-roaring renditions of Golden Highway’s new songs in this performance for Paste Studio on the Road, but also an interesting and enlightening interview with a Paste host. The songs are presented as the founders of bluegrass intended: the band surrounding one microphone, weaving in and out of one another’s space to be heard. In between the interview portions, the band plays three songs from Golden Highway’s new album, Crooked Tree. For those of us who couldn’t get to DelFest this year, this video is a great way to feel like you didn’t completely miss out.

WATCH: Sam Robbins, “Hard to Hate” (Live Acoustic)

Artist: Sam Robbins
Hometown: Portsmouth, New Hampshire (now in Nashville)
Song: “Hard to Hate”
Album: Bigger Than in Between
Release Date: August 5, 2022
Label: Nine Athens Music

In Their Words: “‘Hard to Hate’ is my favorite song from my upcoming album. This song was written and rewritten, reworked and rethought many times. It took a lot of work! The impetus for the song is from remembering all of the people I’ve met through music over the years, and how they always surprise me in the best way when I look a little deeper. I wanted a video that captured the soul of the song, more stripped-down than the original recording, so I headed to The Treehouse in Nashville and we did a one-take, solo acoustic version.” — Sam Robbins

WATCH: Marcus King, “Blood on the Tracks” (Live From Easy Eye Sound)

Artist: Marcus King
Hometown: Greenville, South Carolina
Song: “Blood on the Tracks”
Album: Young Blood
Release Date: August 26, 2022
Label: Easy Eye Sound

In Their Words: “‘Blood On the Tracks’ was the first song we wrote for the record. It was also my first time meeting Desmond Child. He’s 100% unapologetically himself at all times and that charmed me immediately. I really enjoyed working with Dan [Auerbach] and Desmond on this tune. They both have such an acute sensibility for a ‘hook’ it is scary! The song essentially tells the story of moving forward or being taken down by the trouble you are facing — catching the train or the bloodier alternative. Every writing session for this record started with a conversation, an opportunity for my collaborators to take a peek inside my soul and the pain I was carrying around.” — Marcus King

LISTEN: Bonny Light Horseman, “Summer Dream”

Artist: Bonny Light Horseman (Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, Josh Kaufman)
Song: “Summer Dream”
Album: Rolling Golden Holy
Release Date: October 7, 2022
Label: 37d03d Records

In Their Words: “I think of ‘Summer Dream’ as the ultimate example of the ‘yes, and’ process we got into for this record. There was something we could all feel about this ‘ghost of a summer’s past,’ so the scene is true to each of us but somehow remains mysterious — a phantom. We could have sung that wordless outro for an hour, and in the rough track we basically did. We wanted it to ‘spill all over’ like a summer night.” — Anaïs Mitchell

WATCH: Vandoliers, “Howlin'”

Artist: Vandoliers
Hometown: Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
Song: “Howlin'”
Album: The Vandoliers
Release Date: August 12, 2022
Label: Amerikinda Records/Soundly Music

In Their Words: “In 2019, I wrote ‘Howlin” while my family dog cried by the door waiting for my mom and dad to come home. It took no time at all before I had a complete song of lyrics depicting the pain of loss and a friend long gone. I love this song in its innocence, and the simplicity of ‘I miss you.’” — Joshua Fleming, Vandoliers

WATCH: G. Love, “Mississippi” (Acoustic)

Artist: G. Love
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Song: “Mississippi”
Album: Philadelphia Mississippi
Release Date: June 24, 2022
Label: Philadelphonic Records/Thirty Tigers

In Their Words: “‘Mississippi’ is a contemporary blues/hip-hop song which lyrically reflects the images and thoughts brought on by the state and historic culture of Mississippi. It’s both a celebration of the blues’ rich musical history and a condemnation of the dark history of racism, Jim Crow and slavery which played such a terrible part in the history of Mississippi and our country as a whole. Here I perform solo guitar and harmonica, singing the lyrics of bluesman Alvin Youngblood Hart and my own lyric, set over a driving riff in the key of E.” — G. Love

With Measured Emotion, John Moreland Hypnotizes on “Ugly Faces”

John Moreland continues pushing into his own sound, which seems to be this unique, creative blend of singer-songwriter sadness, striking instrumentalism, and modern production techniques. All three of those prime ingredients are on full display with the opening track from Birds In the Ceiling, a new album arriving on July 22 on Old Omens/Thirty Tigers. The lead single is titled “Ugly Faces” and it sets the expectation nicely for what promises to be a record that stands out. Measured emotion, concise playing, and entrancing production make the song fly by. Clocking in at just under three and a half minutes, “Ugly Faces” is by no means too short or too long, but Moreland’s hypnotizing ability makes it feel like it lasts no longer than a minute. Be on the lookout for a tour to support Birds In the Ceiling set to kick off in July.