Cathing a few bad breaks is one thing, but imagine if your record label folded and right when you’re about to play the prestigious Stagecoach Festival in Spring 2020…well you know the story. Dominque Pruitt was on the short end of this musical stick, yet we can bet her shag-carpeted neon light-hued rock with surf guitar, twangy vocals, and pop splendor would sound damn perfect out via Palm Springs way.
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The Boot Premieres “Bird on a Wire” Music Video from Van Plating
Singer-songwriter Van Plating went the spontaneous route when creating her newest music video, for her single “Bird on a Wire.” The clip, premiering exclusively on The Boot, captures both the golden hour of a summertime afternoon in Florida and the lyrics’ dreamy, pensive qualities.
“Usually when I create a visual for my work, there’s an inspo board and a storyline. It’s all mapped out well ahead of time and styled to the T,” Plating tells The Boot. “This one wasn’t.”
Americana Highways Interviews Malin Pettersen
Malin Pettersen is a Norweigan singer – songwriter / musician who is a rising star in both Nashville and the Nordicana movement. She has shared bills with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Brad Paisley, Jim Lauderdale, Colter Wall, Charlie Crockett, Kelsey Waldon, Mollie Tuttle, Erin Rae, Nikki Lane, and Jaime Wyatt and has toured as support for Sam Outlaw, Whitney Rose and Joshua Hedley. Her new album Wildhorse , which was recorded in Nashville and features an all-star band of musicians including Aaron Goodrich, Misa Arriaga, Ryan A. Keith, and Eddy Dunlap, is due to be released October 16. Recently I spoke with the charismatic and talented Pettersen about her songwriting process, her love of American music, and her new album.
Americana Highways: How would you best describe your songwriting process?
Malin Pettersen: It often differs on how long it takes for me to write a song. Some are written in hours, some in days, weeks, or years. And the process itself used to be pretty monotonous in that I would just sit down with my guitar and start playing something and try to sing something on top of it, making up the words as I went along. But after a long writer’s block in my early 20’s I decided to start exploring different techniques and that has definitely helped make me a better and more diverse songwriter. Sometimes I’ll improvise melodies and see if something appears that I like and that I can work with. Sometimes I’ll look through old notebooks and look for single lines to see if they spark something. Sometimes I’ll sit down with my guitar and just start playing to see what comes out. Sometimes I’ll slap a capo high on the guitar to see if it brings new melody ideas to me. And sometimes, if I’m in a period of writer’s block – I’ll just write all the bad songs in my head, and then something worth moving forward with will suddenly reveal itself.
Americana UK Highlights New Song from The Northern Belle
Nordicana – we love it, especially when it comes in the form of West Coast harmonies, and claims influences from all the best people – Erin Rae, for example, and The Byrds. Harmonies, guitars and just the right amount of swearing: “they say that girls can’t play guitar I don’t give a fuck“. And neither do we. Like we say, we love it.
The Northern Belle culled this track from their third album “We Wither We Bloom” which sees the Norwegian septet launching themselves into the wider world.
Americana Highways Compares Secret Emchy Society to Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn
From the opening chords of The Chaser, the new album from Secret Emchy Society, you realize you have been transported to a special world. You have walked through the proverbial swinging doors and entered a place where the band is playing a mixture of the frenetic rockabilly of Elvis and Charlie, the Bakersfield boldness of Buck and Merle, the Outlaw swagger of Waylon and Willie, and the frenetic cowpunk of Jason and The Scorchers in a way quite unlike any other band in America right now.
As you listen to the booming and beautiful voice of bandleader Cindy Emch, you hear her delivering her affecting lyrical observations on life, loneliness, heartbreak, longing, regret, alcohol, barfights, dreams, and love with a Patsy Cline clarity and Loretta Lynn bravado…
No Depression Premieres New Song from Kellen of Troy
Once a fiddler with Apache Relay, multi-instrumentalist Kellen Wenrich begins his solo career as Kellen of Troy with his debut LP, Posthumous Release (out February 16th). The upcoming release finds the singer-songwriter mellow, focused, and rich with realization in songs where blissful folk melodies are juxtaposed with reflective, vulnerable, and somber lyrics that pull from the personal and professional.
Today, Kellen of Troy shares the new song, “Rule Your Heart,” a cleverly crafted indie-pop gem with a spacious melody that floats alongside Wenrich’s honest, endearing vocals. Wenrich, who is happily married, says the song is “about my beautiful, brilliant, compassionate, talented, bad-ass wife and how I don’t really care about what anybody thinks of me besides her. Also, how I don’t really care to do or be anything else besides her husband.” Adding, “Full-disclosure, she is sitting next to me right now, but that in no way has influenced my answer.”