We’re delighted to premiere the latest single from Louisiana-born songwriter Kate Ellis. As a young man, Ellis’s father once played guitar with the legendary Hank Williams on the famous Louisiana Hayride and he inspired her love of country music which is apparent on ‘The Other Side of the Street’. It’s upbeat and shimmers with sonic brightness, a great platform for Ellis’s typically warm, melodic voice. While the subject matter is bittersweet, the song sounds sweetly engaging. Like the best country, heartache and heartbreak are delivered through tuneful music that sounds irresistible.
The video follows Ellis through busy city streets; it’s vibrant, vivid and colourful, matching the uptempo song’s sense of lightness. ‘The Other Side of the Street’ was written by Tom Hackwood, a musician friend who has previously been the drummer in a band with Ellis’s long-time collaborator Andy Hobsbawm. Ellis says of the song and its accompanying video: “We loved the tune and although Tom wrote it as an introspective, indie ballad, we thought it would work really well as an upbeat country pop song. I’ve always enjoyed the way Abba combined jubilant and catchy melodies with lyrics about heartbreak and loss, and I like how our treatment of this song tries to do the same thing. We wanted the video to physically show the distance between me and the camera as the song chronicles the distance between the singer and the man who left her. We also wanted to celebrate the diverse and beautiful streets of London in a natural way – its quiet, leafy roads, vivid graffiti covered walls, former industrial districts, tunnels and canals – from morning through to sunset.”
This single is taken from Ellis’s 2022 album ‘Spirals’, which was produced by John Reynolds (Sinéad O’Connor, the Indigo Girls, The Cranberries). Her reflective, authentic and timeless songs received critical acclaim and the album was described by AUK as: “An irrefutable, unquestionable joy,” in our 9/10 review here. The well-received album is due to be released on vinyl on 24th February 2023, featuring a previously unreleased bonus track from the same sessions with Reynolds. After absorbing the single, check out the album, a brilliantly crafted blend of country and folk. Enjoy.
