CHELSEA LOVITT UNVEILS NEW VIDEO “STATE OF DENIAL”

CHELSEA LOVITT RELEASES NEW VIDEO “STATE OF DENIAL”

NASHVILLE RESIDENCY BEGINS IN MARCH

WATCH: “STATE OF DENIAL”

Today, Nashville-based artist Chelsea Lovitt releases her brand new video, “State Of Denial.” Directed by Joshua Shoemaker (Marcus King Band, Nicole Atkins, Vanessa Carlton, and more), the video features Lovitt driving around Nashville delivering flowers. “I had a flower delivery gig on Valentine's Day last year and figured it would be an appropriate setting and easy props to shoot a video for ‘State Of Denial’ in my van, as it's a song about being apart and in love and folks always on the road,” she explains. “I envisioned a sad flower delivery girl making other people happy, apart from her lover and that was a true story. I didn't care because I was about to sell my van and open for Wayne Hancock the next day, and had a record release coming up.” Little did she know, a few weeks later, the world completely shut down—her plans, like so many others’, all canceled. 

The track is featured on her latest album, You Had Your Cake, So Lie In It. “I wrote this song on a harmonica in a field in Delaware the month before going in the studio,” Lovitt recalls of “State Of Denial.” “It was five in the morning and I’d been listening to Dylan. I had ambitions and ideas for this record to be influenced by Blonde on Blonde of course, and since we were doing it on tape and in Nashville I’d been listening to that and Nashville Skyline obsessively. I wrote this when I was in love, after not ever really being in it. It examines psychological issues that maybe stem from being from Mississippi because for some reason we’re prone to be emotional hoarders and it’s hard to ‘sift through that pile’ when it comes to letting go and living in the moment or especially being in love,” she continues. 

“The song reflects on what wasn’t love and what is and why sometimes it’s a bittersweet ‘can’t be,’ because distance and/or your own neuroses get in the way. And it's kind of like the predicament we have on Valentine’s this year when we have to socially distance ourselves and a lot of lovers can't be together. And maybe this year has been a soul-distancing that folks like me have actually needed to figure out and ‘sift through’ our own internal crap and be better people,” she explains. “When else could we have done that in this fast paced world? It's also been a test of what it means to really love somebody, especially when you can't physically be with them.” 

For Lovitt, the multifaceted music of the South is her inspiration. She is immersed in the traditions of country, soul, rock ‘n’ roll, and bluegrass, and her bona fides on guitar and fiddle match her vocal chops, which go from pure honky-tonk to rockabilly to folk and rock ‘n’ roll.

Those contradictions drive Lovitt’s debut album You Had Your Cake, So Lie in It, recorded in Nashville with producer Andrija Tokic at his analog wonderland The Bomb Shelter. It’s an inspired collection of various, mostly Southern musical approaches. It’s also, in subtle and personal ways, a political record that questions America’s obsession with material wealth, toxic relationships between men and women, and explores the way the Trump era corroded values and isolated human beings. You Had Your Cake, So Lie in It is also about tradition and family, and the vagaries of human identity. Her music is complex, full of contradictions, honoring the mystery of the Southern tradition.

Lovitt will perform in The Boot’s Live & Socially Distant series on Sunday, February 14th at 4:00pm CST, streaming live via Facebook and Instagram. She will also begin a month-long residency at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge on Tuesday nights in March, featuring special guests each week. Be sure to follow her via the links below for more details.

CONNECT WITH CHELSEA LOVITT:  

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MELISSA CARPER RELEASES NEW SINGLE “I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT YOU” & VIDEO PREMIERES VIA WESTERN AF

MELISSA CARPER RELEASES NEW SINGLE 

“I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT YOU”

VIDEO PREMIERES VIA WESTERN AF

 NEW LP DADDY’S COUNTRY GOLD OUT ON MARCH 19

Singer-bassist Melissa Carper sounds like a voice from a bygone era...Evoking the cool, smoky croon of a lounge singer, Carper gives some winking commentary about having a good time. - Rolling Stone Country

Daddy’s County Gold stays light on its feet, and Carper sings with ease...Carper is a first-rate songwriter, as her new music demonstrates. - Nashville Scene

Captivating and authentic vintage country - Glide Magazine

As a dish cooked up with the spice of many talented hands, there rightfully should be a line out the door to sample this new album by Melissa Carper…it’ll meet all your expectations for a classic country music with a dose of carefree humor.  -  Americana Highways

Melissa Carper is a talented singer-songwriter and upright bass player who is worth our intention - Americana-UK

There’s something so absolutely refreshing about straightforward, old-fashioned playing. An homage at points, but very much of Carper’s sound…the right amount of rascally sweetness of a country night out. - Country Queer

Photo: Aisha Golliher

 WATCH // LISTEN: “I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT YOU”

Singer/songwriter and upright bassist Melissa Carper has released her latest single “I Almost Forgot About You,” a track from her forthcoming album Daddy’s Country Gold, set for release on March 19th. 

“The idea for 'I Almost Forgot About You' came from a weekend in which I had a very good time and had managed to forget about a love interest that I had been obsessing about,” Carper explains of the song. "When I got back home that phrase came to me, 'I Almost Forgot About You' and I realized I had a song there.  I just kind of tied in the various lost loves of my life to come up with the rest.  It came to me that way and in fact this entire song had a nice easy flow with the way it all came.  I like it when that happens, feels like you are getting help from the universe.”  “I Almost Forgot About You” follows lead single “Makin’ Memories.”

 WATCH // LISTEN: “MAKIN’ MEMORIES”

Carper’s refreshingly unique style calls to mind greats like Kitty Wells, Billie Holiday, and Loretta Lynn, beautifully conveyed in the grooves of the album’s 12 sparkling gems. Carper enlisted fellow bassist Dennis Crouch (The Time Jumpers) and producer/engineer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Margo Price) to co-produce the album and bring her dream to life. Recorded live to tape at Tokic’s analog studio wonderland The Bomb Shelter in Nashville, the album features Crouch (bass), Chris Scruggs (guitar, steel guitar), Jeff Taylor (piano, organ, accordion), Matty Meyer (drums, percussion), Billy Contreras (fiddle), with guest appearances from Brennen Leigh, Sierra Ferrell, and legendary pedal steel maestro Lloyd Green.

 As a child, Carper, who acquired the nickname “Daddy” years ago from her bandmates for always knowing how to “take care of ‘bidness’,” would lay her head underneath the family record player as she listened to Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and other greats from her parents’ collection. After a childhood spent in her family’s country band, Carper attended the University of Nebraska on a music scholarship, spending much of her time in the library devouring every Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Nat King Cole album she could find. Around this time, Carper’s father gifted her a full collection of Jimmie Rodgers’ recordings, which was a pivotal moment in finding her unique style of songcraft. 

 The wayfaring Carper soon found herself in the historic town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where she saw street performers for the first time. Busking seemed a very free and appealing endeavor, so Carper diligently learned all the old country songs she loved as a child. She soon relocated to music hubs like New Orleans, New York City, Austin, and eventually Nashville, oftentimes busking to make ends meet until gigs would come along. On the way, she founded award-winning bands like power trio The Carper Family, playing festivals and gigs across the globe, and on shows like “A Prairie Home Companion.” Carper also holds a spot in award-winning Arkansas foursome Sad Daddy, and founded roots duo Buffalo Gals with Sad Daddy bandmate and girlfriend Rebecca Patek.

 Her forthcoming solo record Daddy’s Country Gold is just that - 12 glittering Carper originals of the country, western swing, and jazz variety. From the first notes of album opener “Makin’ Memories,” to the whimsical “Would You Like To Get Some Goats,” and the heart-wrenching tenderness of album closer “The Stars Are Aligned,” this lifetime of work, experience, and wanderlust culminates in a beautiful portrait of heartfelt music, written by a road-lovin’ gal who has lived these songs and spent her life playing music for folks that still love the real thing.

 Be sure to catch Melissa Carper perform live on Facebook every Monday night at 6:00 pm CST, which is streamed HERE.

CONNECT WITH MELISSA CARPER:  

WEBSITE || FACEBOOK || INSTAGRAM || BANDCAMP || YOUTUBE || SPOTIFY  

MARK ERELLI PREMIERES “THE RIVER ALWAYS WINS” VIDEO

MARK ERELLI PREMIERES  “THE RIVER ALWAYS WINS”

VIDEO  VIA FOLK ALLEY

NEW LP BLINDSIDED  OUT NOW VIA SOUNDLY MUSIC 

 “...soars on the wings of jangly guitars, heartfelt vocals and soulful harmony lines...Yep, that's the sweet spot right there. And there's enough of it to make this album matter." - The Associated Press

“Erelli’s not going to blindside you. He’s going to give it to you straight.” - The Boston Globe

"...finds him trimming back the guest list and nodding to another icon, heartland hero Tom Petty, whose influence looms large over the song’s 12-string guitar jangle and straightforward vocal hooks." - Rolling Stone

"Comes out swinging" - The Boot

"...Blindsided may be his best yet" - Medium

“Blindsided is a bit of Americana alchemy, a concoction that can only be served up by someone who knows the rules inside and out — enough to break them when needed.” - No Depression

"For Erelli, music is a way to appreciate the world and the people in his life. And perhaps most acutely, the practice of music has taught Erelli the beauty of sublimation and reinforced the joy of helping others achieve their dreams, which, in turn, helps Erelli also achieve his." - American Songwriter 

"...a really wonderful record. Go for a walk… listen, become happy." - Maine Public Radio

"...echoes Tom Petty and John Prine" - PopMatters

"...a serious, talented artist, but he also understands his role as a storyteller and entertainer...Erelli pulls from lots of places and makes things his own." - Glide Magazine

"Blindsided is ballad heavy with a rocker cut here, a mid-tempo groove there, it is a nod to Mark Erelli’s diversity that the album showcases an ability to cross genre lines." - The Alternate Root

"You know those artists who release a great first record and then have enormous trouble following it up with anything as interesting? Yeah, that’s not Mark Erelli. Mark has consistently expanded his sound while also not chasing whatever wave seems to be cresting at any given moment. The result is a catalogue of depth and heart." - Red Line Roots

"Erelli's always been a brilliant songsmith, but here he finds a dynamic that melds the cerebral with the celebratory." - Country Standard Time

"Erelli has a way with words that really hits in the world we live in now…this album is very well done, and Erelli shows that as a songwriter, he is worthy of emulation.” - Americana Highways

"Mark Erelli has taken a new direction, delving deeper into his rockier side.  A roots-rockier side that has room for a few strings and a pile of melody." - Americana-UK

"...songs and songwriting of a quality rarely encountered. Mark Erelli’s Blindsided. Don’t tell me you didn’t see it coming. Most highly recommended." - Fervor Coulee

__________________________________________________________________________

WATCH: “THE RIVER ALWAYS WINS”

Boston-based singer/songcrafter Mark Erelli has unveiled a new music video for “The River Always Wins,” a track from his highly-acclaimed new album, Blindsided. "I wrote this song with Berklee College of Music professor and singer/songwriter Susan Cattaneo,” Erelli told Folk Alley, who premiered the video. “It started out simply enough, trying to describe the tension between a small town and a river. One needs the other, but the cycles of disaster and rebirth started to make us wonder if the reverse was true. When we decided to write it as if the river itself were the song’s protagonist, things got far more interesting. The central riff of the song is one of the favorite things I’ve ever written. I could play it for days.” Of the video, Folk Alley, who called Blindsided a “career-best,” said, “the song leans into a darkly edgy groove that feels like something Steve Earle would throw down, as Erelli runs through the ramblings of life as viewed from the crystal clear perspective of the river, itself.”

LISTEN: BLINDSIDED

The album, an unflinching examination of the distance between innocence and experience from “the middle” of life’s fantastic journey, is a step in a different sonic direction for the award-winning artist. “For Blindsided he has amped up with a superb band,” noted The Boston Globe in its premiere of the album. “Blindsided says just as much about who he is as it does about where he’s been. The secrets are embedded in the restraint of the 11-song set, a collection efficient yet varied, emotional yet exact,” said No Depression, who called Erelli “an expert craftsman.”

WATCH: “I CAN’T STAND MYSELF”

WATCH: “BLINDSIDED”

Blindsided was forged in a process of reckoning, of taking stock of the soul, and being pleasantly surprised. In it, Erelli contemplates the delicate tension between love and commitment, faith and family, disillusionment and hope. But this isn’t a confession from the therapist’s couch, it’s rock ’n roll, and Erelli is clearly taking his cues from heroes like Petty and Prine. Against the backdrop of Blindsided’s hungrier, hook-laden sound, with the inspired addition of a string quartet on half of the album, Erelli has never sounded more passionate or vital. Over the course of Blindsided’s 11 tracks, the message of each song is distilled to its purest form, as fearlessly honest in perspective as it is straightforward in its delivery. 

Erelli has forged a colorful career by making the art of “being everywhere all the time” seem effortless. It’s hard to think of another artist who seems equally at home serving as a sideman for GRAMMY-winning artists like Paula Cole, Marc Cohn, and Josh Ritter, or producing albums for Lori McKenna, as he does writing and producing his own material, like last year’s “By Degrees,” on which he was joined by a host of voices including Rosanne Cash and Sheryl Crow. That song was nominated for “Song Of The Year” at the 2019 Americana Music Awards and served to reintroduce Erelli to a wider audience. And just in time, because Blindsided combines the exuberance of Erelli’s signature sound with the wisdom that comes with over 20 years of songwriting, capturing an artist at a point in his career where he is clearly digging deep and swinging for the fences. “In one of my favorite Tom Petty songs, he sings ‘it took a world of trouble, took a world of tears, it took a long time to get back here,’” Erelli says. “I think I know exactly how he felt.”