MATT LOVELL RELEASES TIMELY NEW SINGLE "BE FREE"

MATT LOVELL’S NEW SINGLE "BE FREE" PREMIERES

VIA GLIDE MAGAZINE 

DEBUT LP NOBODY CRIES TODAY OUT JUNE 5TH

PHOTO: JASON LEE DENTON

Nashville-based artist Matt Lovell has unveiled “Be Free,” a timely new single from his debut album, Nobody Cries Today, out on June 5th. “Lovell grew up learning to sing three-part harmonies in a household steeped in soul...Those roots anchor the tracks on his forthcoming LP,” says Glide Magazine in its premiere. “Be Free,” which Lovell says reminds him of his upbringing, was inspired by the Aretha Franklin-style gospel heard in his youth, music he revisited during the writing and recording process. “Subdued organ and a laid-back rhythm section provide a dreamy, vintage-washed landscape for Lovell’s soulful, velvety vocals,” Glide Magazine adds. “Spendin’ all our days/Trying to make it to the sun/But I don’t wanna go/Unless there’s room for everyone…Somebody tell me when we gon’ be free,” he implores, a question the entire world seems to be asking today – when will we be free of bigotry, free of racism, free of classism, and even free from the sickness currently ravaging our planet?” 

LISTEN: “BE FREE” 

“Be Free,” the third selection from Lovell’s album, follows the release of “Alligator Lilly,” a playful allegory of lost innocence accompanied by a quirky, Wes Anderson-style video filmed at the Gulf Of Mexico. PopDust said “Alligator Lilly” was “full of eye-candy visuals and striking, hypnotic imagery.” Lead single “90 Proof” was written during attempts to let go of a relationship that had ended. “Lovell knows how to tap into a part of himself that can bring the emotions of ’90 Proof’ to the surface and doing so is all the more honorable, knowing the story he’s trying to tell, isn’t a made up screenplay,” said American Songwriter. “It’s one man being willing to revisit challenging parts of his life and do so with performative solemnity and grace.”

WATCH: “ALLIGATOR LILLY” 

WATCH: “90 PROOF” 

All but one of the album’s songs were recorded in 2016 - just months before  Lovell nearly lost his life. On January 20, 2017, he was shot in the chest by a sixteen-year-old who attempted to steal his car. Miraculously, he lived. “This moment created a new center of gravity and re-ordered my understanding of everything I’ve experienced in this lifetime,” he explains. “Many people who experience acute trauma go through somewhat of a euphoric period immediately after the incident occurs, and this was definitely my experience. The level of peace I felt was something I had never touched before. I wrote profusely, I gardened, I brought new life and vigor to my musical ventures, and I made peace with complicated friendships. More than anything, I found a level of great self-acceptance and this created space for me to begin to learn how to live this life.”   

This era ended with the abrupt onset of PTSD, causing the most difficult time Lovell had ever faced. He began to question everything and struggled to find a way to articulate the horrors he was experiencing.  Now, on the other side of recovery, Lovell is excited to sing these songs again for anyone who will listen. “In these years of writing and recording, I have gathered quite a wild palette of paints,” he says. “In a way, Nobody Cries Today has actually been my teacher.  As I have written these songs, each of them has been like a tiny rowboat to get me from one day to the next. They have witnessed me in the years that I was in the throes of trying to find acceptance for myself and for the world I’m living in.  As a gay man of Southern origin, this proved to be a tall order. These songs have also helped me to explore things like zest for life, discontent, hunger, truth, and hope,” he continues. “Nobody Cries Today contains every bit of earnestness, desire, and love that I have to give.” 

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MICHELLE MANDICO OFFERS HOPE WITH PICTURESQUE NEW VIDEO "PTARMIGAN"

Nashville-based Colorado-bred singer/songwriter Michelle Mandico has unveiled a beautiful new video for “Ptarmigan,” the title track of her widely-praised LP released in 2018. "Ptarmigan" was filmed on the ski slopes at Loveland Pass in Colorado; Mandico, who grew up on these same slopes, wrote the song on Christmas Day in 2015, after she skied the silent, empty slopes alone, contemplating a challenging time she was going through personally and within her family. She spent most of her time using a lift called Ptarmigan - a ptarmigan is a cold climate-dwelling bird that changes color (from dark to light) with the seasons for survival. She wrote the song that night and began to identify with the ptarmigan's symbology, thinking of it as a metaphor for that season of her life, an artist passing through darkness into the light. "The stripped-down acoustic-guitar based song features Mandico’s delicate vocals as she contemplates her place in the world," said Billboard in its premiere. “My hope is that this video as a visual story conveys the metaphor that this album has become for me. The courage and awareness to speak up about the blind spots that depression can cause and in contrast to the bright, wide ideas that artists flow through, oftentimes quietly riding the ups and downs of life, purpose, and existence," Mandico told Billboard of the video. The song features Scott Mulvahill and Luther Dickinson on guitars, and Ryan Joseph (Alan Jackson, Kacey Musgraves) on fiddle. The song (and album) was co-produced by Mandico and Kevin Houston and was executively produced by Dickinson.

WATCH: "PTARMIGAN" 

Mandico traded in the snowy Colorado slopes for the warm sounds of Nashville to deepen her career as a writer and musician. Encouraged by a musical family, she grew up singing with her sisters before learning to play piano at age five and began songwriting shortly after. Her debut full-length album, PTARMIGAN, is a colorful tribute to her crossing from the Rocky Mountains to Music City. Venturing into Americana, Western-folk, and roots, Mandico began recording with Kevin Houston in Coldwater, Mississippi at Zebra Ranch, the legendary studio of Jim Dickinson. Stripped down to live takes with no click and a handful of esteemed collaborators, the songs of PTARMIGAN lead with vocal intimacy and devoted lyrical imagery. Besides pursuing her music career, Mandico teaches yoga and encourages others to practice emotional wellness by holding space for honest conversation around mental wellness, openly sharing her struggle with anxiety and depression, and how she’s directed these dark times towards artistic inspiration, like the ptarmigan. 

On April 10th, Mandico will release Something New, a three-song piano and vocal collaboration with jazz pianist Eunha So. Be sure to follow her for the latest updates.

GLENN THOMAS RELEASES NEW SINGLE “ORIOLE” & ANNOUNCES NEW LP "REASSURE ME THERE'S A WINDOW"

Nashville-by-way-of-New England singer/songwriter Glenn Thomas has released “Oriole,” the lead single from his forthcoming LP Reassure Me There’s A Window, out May 15th via Palace Flophouse Records. “I wrote this song after a bout of insomnia, where I wouldn’t fall asleep until early in the morning each night,” Thomas told Atwood Magazine in its premiere. “There was that dreaded time before the sun began to rise where the birds would start chirping. I thought it would be funny to ask the birds the questions that were keeping me up, since they were all unanswerable anyway. When I set the words to music, I thought it would be fun to make the music sound…lively, like a 60s pop song with serious lyrics.” “Folky, calm, with a skip in its step, its rhythm is familiar and bright,” Atwood Magazine said. “Raised in New England, Thomas encapsulates that ambience of small town daydreaming. “Oriole” is a reminder that, whether we’re with our own thoughts or sharing company with nature, we’re never solely alone- regardless of how delirious we feel.”

LISTEN: "ORIOLE"

Thomas, who cut his teeth fronting Rhode Island rock outfit Wild Sun, has shared stages with bands like Langhorne Slim, The Wombats, and Blitzen Trapper. He began writing songs that didn't fit within the rock-centric framework, and decided he would strike out on his own, stretching his creative muscles. The album was produced by Jordan Lehning (Rodney Crowell, Andrew Combs, Joshua Hedley); with its throwback flair, Reassure Me There's A Window is a lush, sweetly-arranged collection of articulate folk-tinged songs. Of Reassure Me There’s A Window, Atwood Magazine said, “The album, recorded in Nashville, follows a similar easy-going reflectiveness as ‘Oriole,’ with the additional guitar twangs and the sound of violins like hazy streaks of sunset while traveling solitarily on an open road.” 

The album's 11 tracks - tight fingerpicking guitar-based tunes with introspective lyrics fleshed out with resonant string arrangements - center around the human condition - ideas of love and loss, isolation and connection, and wondering what more is out there. He writes songs that cut straight to his truths; by putting his life and the human condition under the microscope, his songs articulately observe the big questions with small details, paying careful attention to his understanding of himself and the seasonality of life. 

Thomas will celebrate Reassure Me There’s A Window with an album release show on May 13th at The 5 Spot in Nashville.