All about the human experience, these LITM Singer-Songwriter Picks are thought-provoking in their music; featuring Down South Pepper Band, Ridge Banks, Mark Winters, and more!
1. Down South Pepper Band – Shady Road
When the first notes of Shady Road play through your speakers, it automatically conjures up images of Down South Pepper Band being, well, a band from down south; with a quintessential Americana twang, the song is classic country, from sound to theme. It may come as a shock, then, that DSP Band hails from Kvalsund, Norway – proving that great country music needn’t be confined to a specific country. Opening with “My sister, Mary Lou, she was a rising star / Selling snow from the backseat of my car… So the boys in blue put her down in a prison cell”, the song establishes the story of young promise going unrealised, over and over, and does so with humour that never undercuts the warning. Listen here!
2. Ridge Banks – Searching for Savannah
No matter how hard you go searching for a unified opinion on the migrant experience, there’ll always be someone with a perspective you haven’t heard before; like it or not, that’s the scale of this discussion that only gets more heated every day. Clashes of politics and differences in ideology are what’s become natural, but Ridge Banks brings emotion to this that transcends it all on Searching for Savannah: a heart-rending, delicate song that weaves the vivid story of someone who left it all behind in search of something better, only to have their children taken away from them. Soft strings and delicate vocals carry this song forward, giving a face to the story that’s impossible to ignore.
3. Mark Winters – All In The Rhythm
A celebration of the moments when life feels like an endless, inviting expanse where anything is possible, Mark Winters’ All In The Rhythm is all about staying present in the moment and cherishing the small moments you have with who you love. Built on a foundation of warm acoustic guitar and comforting vocals that swell throughout the track, the whole thing feels like a warm hug, telling you to slow down and appreciate life while also moving step for step with the people that make it worth living. Like Winters says, “It’s all in the rhythm of this life” – check this song out here!
4. Sophie Moore – Closer Than
Opening her latest album, Trouble In Mind, is Sophie Moore’s Closer Than, a track that encourages you to live life to the fullest. The carpe diem sentiment that flows across the track is one that’s been done and heard multiple times, but Moore brings a comforting, reassuring presence to it – the kind that tells you to just go for it, because the cost of no chance is higher than the regret you’ll feel if you don’t take it. With lyrics like “Don’t stop taking chances / Leave your fears behind / Live the stuff of dreams while you’ve got the time,” it’s easy for the track to slip into boring motivational speaker talk, but this lands with the weight of someone who knows what they’re talking about. Check it out here!
5. Bennie Hayfield – Long Way From Home
From Bennie Hayfield’s latest album, A World I’m Living For, comes Long Way From Home, a folk-tinted ballad that throws polish and blandness out in favour of an intimate sound that sounds like it’s speaking right at you. “I got a life to reinvent / I’m going back to the beginning, trying to prevent all those choices and decisions that led to my great descent,” the song goes, evoking that classic blend of melancholy and warm hopefulness. Fast-paced strumming and Hayfield’s rustic, expansive vocals that aren’t afraid of expressing exactly what they feel form the base of this track, capturing that exact bittersweet feeling of being a long way from home. Listen here!
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