Recorded at The Sound Emporium and Music Row’s Sienna Studios with some of Nashville’s finest musicians, including drummer Matt King (Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne), bassist Lex Price (k.d. lang, Miranda Lambert), and Tim Galloway (Joshua Hedley, Cody Johnson) on rhythm guitar and banjo, “Ethereal Emerald” truly comes to life. Hollow says, “What an incredible experience, in one of the best studios in the world.”
Australian native, now Nashville-based indie-pop artist Josh Rennie-Hynes’ latest single “Morning Stars” continues his progression into a more electronic sound (listen below), but he’s premiering his acoustic version right here on Nashville.com. (listen above) It’s the second single to be released from his forthcoming LP Light/Shade and it just dropped today. (Jan. 19)
Nashville.com has premiered the energetic new song from Stuffy Shmitt’s first record in eight years, “Sweet Krazy.” Why eight years? Because, well, he went crazy.
“I was living in New York and my brain was on fire. I got that bipolar thing. I was bouncing between full-blown depression and a jailbreak manic buzz rush. After nearly a decade of getting 86’d from bars in the West Village, I made it to Nashville six years ago and finally got my head screwed on tight enough to make a new record. When I first moved to Nashville, my New York City depression moved with me, but I’ve bounced back hard now, who knows why—the caliber of players down here maybe, or the East Nashville community that adopted me and my music.”
The new album, Stuff Happens, finds Shmitt not quite exorcising his demons, but exercising them—wrestling with them until they’ve been knocked around enough to be manageable. “I didn’t realize until the record was finished and my wife, Donna, pointed it out,” Stuffy says, “but this album is all about trauma. Disasters big and small. It was an accident, though. It was all subconscious. I guess, eventually, that shit’s gotta come out.”
Nashville-based singer/songwriter Laura Rabell is exclusively premiering her new single “The Highway” today on Nashville.com. Listen above. A cross between Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert might be a good description of Rabell’s style. She’s more at home in an East Nashville bar than she is at a touristy writer’s round downtown. On February 22, 2019, Laura Rabell was in the studio working on background vocals for song called “Ride the Wolf” with friend and collaborator Kristen Cothron and producer Dave Coleman. But in the middle of wrapping up overdubs for her debut album, she found it difficult to focus—Rabell had just had a biopsy, and she was waiting on the results.
“I couldn’t sleep the night before the session, so I decided to get up and do something productive,” recalls the Nashville-based singer/songwriter and alt-country artist. “Dave had sent me rough mixes with a suggested tracklist, so I got everything in order and pressed play on the album for the first time. I was so excited to hear that it finally existed. All of my dreams were coming true. But as soon as the second song started playing, my heart sank. I thought, ‘Wait, this isn’t real life. No one gets to be this happy. I’m going to find out I have cancer today.’ And sure enough, 12 hours later, not long after I got home from the studio, the doctor called me with the news.”
Just three weeks before that fateful day, Rabell had proudly announced her debut record to fans, friends and family via email blast. The big reveal? The album would be called… Immortal. She laughs darkly at the recollection: “I guess you shouldn’t call the Titanic unsinkable. I guess you shouldn’t call your first album Immortal. You’re just asking for it.”
In the midst of her very own tragicomedy, the former musical-theater student pressed on, mustering all the strength she could, finishing mixes for her album just in time to put it on the shelf where it would wait impatiently while she endured two surgeries and four rounds of chemo. Now, a year later, Rabell is cancer free and gearing up for Immortal’s release. “Stressful as that time was,” she says, “working on the record, and having the album launch to look forward to was absolutely my oxygen. Just knowing—I have work to do and music to put out into the world—helped me get through the darkest days of dealing with cancer.” READ MORE…
Kyle Daniel recently announced the March 15 release of his sophomore EP What’s There to Say?
What’s there to say when you’ve conceded to the hardships of life? Kyle Daniel wrestles with this question throughout his sophomore EP, aptly titled What’s There to Say? Delivering his message via bright melodies and a wall of electric guitar, Daniel navigates the trials and tribulations of being a working musician, failed relationships, being surrounded by addiction and growing up in modern-day America. Wearing his heart on a tattered sleeve, he pairs everyman lyricism with a rusty vocal akin to Blackberry Smoke, Will Hoge and Chris Stapleton, bristled with a warm guitar bravado. It comes as no surprise that he’s road-dogged as a guitarist for Clare Dunn, Jimmy Hall and Casey James, as well as opened for the likes of Jason Isbell and Miranda Lambert. These are rich, authentic stories told from the perspective of someone who’s wrestled with the ups and downs of being a touring musician.