Written while driving along Nashville’s notoriously gritty and glorious stretch of land, “Gallatin Pike,” the new single from Annie Bacon, is a stunning homage to the folk and Americana sound Bacon has long chased. To breathe life into it, she collaborated with Santa Rosa, CA band eight belles (Jessi Phillips and Henry Nagle) along with Kevin Carducci (Easy Leaves) and Dan Ford. The live recording cuts like a ghostly dream and the accompanying homemade video offers the perfect road movie backdrop to the lyrics…just like Gallatin Pike in the middle of night. This song connected on so many levels which is why it’s also our Song of the Day.
After nearly two decades in San Francisco, folk artist Annie Bacon recently relocated her family to Michigan for a fresh perspective. In the spirit of Americana, she’s recording an album along the way: from San Francisco, to Nashville, to her new home of Ann Arbor. On her seventh recording with her OSHEN, Nothing Stays the Same (available July 2019), Bacon explores themes of heartbreak, change, mental health, and dissolution of ego while returning to her original intent as an artist: to foster connection.
“In each song’s case, the team of musicians is built around one idea: honor the connections,” says Bacon.“This means I’m working with people new and old who I adore, who treat people well, and who are capable of deep connection with the musical gods. I’m also collaborating with artist friends for each of the songs to create an original piece of visual art. Some are photographs, paintings, some are videos meant to deepen the connection in a visual manner.”
I encourage you to seek this one out for keeps. Some singers have a way of connecting with their audience and Annie Bacon’s storytelling, to me at least, hit me in the same way that Robert Frank’s photography did in The Americans…as kerouac said… “he sucked a sad poem out of America onto film”. Everything about this feels so real, even the accompanying artwork rings true…the single is being paired with an image from noted photographer Ian C. Bates, once a subtenant in Annie’s San Francisco apartment. I’m just going to have to listen to it again.
Gallatin Pike is out today. Get it here http://smarturl.it/72d0em
Photo Credit: Cybelle Codish