On his new album ‘Blindsided‘, which will be released on 27th March on Soundly Music, 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. The kind of thing we might call Petty-esque were we lazy, but hold onto that thought for a minute.
Mark Erelli recorded the new album in Nashville with some of his favourite musicians – multi-instrumentalist/producer Zachariah Hickman, drummer Jamie Dick (Rhiannon Giddens, Our Native Daughters), guitarist Sadler Vaden (Jason Isbell, Josh Ritter), Kai Welch (Molly Tuttle, Kacey Musgraves) on keys, producer Zachariah Hickman on bass, and Dan Knobler (Lake Street Dive, Caroline Spence) handling the recording and mixing. About half the album also features a string section making for a fuller sound.
What about today’s song? Well, remember that Petty thought? In this case it is poignantly appropriate, as Mark Erelli found a way to deal with the shock of Petty’s death through song – this song in fact. Mark decided to capture his feelings this way on the advice of fellow troubadour Joe Pug, who said the best way to mourn Petty was to write a song about it. There’s a big nod to Petty in the closing: “I don’t know how to figure where you left off – maybe I should just stop talking and let the music fade, you always seemed to know when there was nothing more to say.”
And while we’re talking about Mark Erelli, you’ll doubtless recall the song ‘By Degrees‘ which also got discussed when we featured ‘Her Town Now‘, Mark’s collaboration with Chuck Prophet last year? Well, as a special “sorry it’s Monday” gift to you, our dear reader, here’s an amazing recording of ‘By Degrees‘ from last year’s 20th AMA Fest in Nashville. What a stage full of artists.
