Nashville singer-songwriter D.L. Rossi bares his soul on his forthcoming album A Sweet Thing (due out on April 12). The album was written in the wake of a battle with cancer and a divorce.
“Something Back,” which Wide Open Country is premiering today, is a soul-searching ballad about what happens when everything you thought you knew is turned upside down.
Rossi says the song, which was the first track written for the album, helped him navigate his next stage of life.
Rossi credits ‘A Sweet Thing’ as being a cathartic emission, a coping strategy for confronting his past. Focusing on the aftermath of the divorce the songs reverberate with feeling. ‘Better’ is a cautionary tale, a man looking in the mirror at himself “I’m broken up, that isn’t an excuse to be an asshole after a few………get your shit together, be better”.
Revealing a glimpse into the self-awareness that he had been lacking for so long, Rossi delivers a thoughtful lyric with the degree of melancholy and sparse accompaniment that the song deserves.
Maybe you like the Allman Brothers Band. Maybe you like Chris Stapleton. Maybe you’re looking for that sweet spot between Southern rock and good old Americana country music. Put your faith in Kyle Daniel‘s music. His sophomore LP What’s There To Say? comes out on March 15th, and it’s already received write-ups from the press including big names like Billboard and Rolling Stone.
The lead track “Born To Lose” sheds light on Daniel’s football field-ready voice, the roar of his band’s organ and electric guitar, the smooth dance of the strings, and the light swing of the drums. Any fan of country music will see that Daniels does it right; if you’re that fan, take a listen to “Born To Lose” below. Daniels is touring the Southeast to support the new album; he’ll be back in Nashville on March 26th to play Twang Tuesday at ACME Feed and Seed.
The thread lines of any given Black Mirror episode speak to the here and now in beautifully tragic and brutal brush strokes. “Nosedive” examines our obsessions with being liked on social media; while the award-winning “San Junipero” scrapes up the layers of an afterlife fated to the cloud. Through each griping tale, the human existence, as rich and intoxicating it can be, is filtered through a sour, stunningly-harrowing lens. Los Angeles singer-songwriter Brad Byrd feels such a sharp blade of technology with his new single, “1982,” premiering today.
The thrill of the unknown can be exhilarating. Untethered by tradition, Americana singer-songwriter David Quinn hit the open road to find himself and rediscover his love of music. The highway swept out from under his feet, weaving through the mountains of Colorado down to the sweltering heat of Texas and then back out west to the coast of California, collecting images and bits of songwriting for what would become his debut album. Wanderin’ Fool is very much indebted to what he reckons was his quarter-life crisis, an adventure that not only reaffirmed his passion but gave him a new lease on life.
“I kind of set out to do it the exact same way, with the exact same players, but it wasn’t that easy,” the Nashville-based singer, songwriter and bandleader tells Billboard. After an initial mixing session for the material “didn’t quite feel right.” Daniel took a step back and revised everything. Now, he notes, “I feel exponentially better about the record — sonically and, overall, from a song standpoint as well. We were a little more meticulous of what we were looking for this time.” That was a big difference from last year’s self-titled effort, which was recorded and fully mastered over the course of just 12 days.