Issue #109: On Abbie Callahan, Up & Coming Artists and Being a Dinosaur, I Guess
Here at Don’t Rock the Inbox, we spend hours and hours listening to new music – because we enjoy it, of course, and because we want to curate the best of what’s out there for our lovely readers (and we listen to a lot of terrible stuff too, so you’re welcome for that). Usually I try to hold discoveries for our Friday roundups, but I’d love to focus more here regularly on up and coming artists and debut records that really stop me in their tracks – Natalie inspired me by taking so much time to introduce us to The Deslondes, who many of you already know but certainly are deserving of a much bigger audience (country radio in a better world, as we always say). Side note: forgive me if my brain is slightly fried or I’m spewing typos, it’s the last week of summer break, there are already kids screaming and running around here, and I don’t think the little pieces of my mind/self/sanity will be repaired until school starts next week. Just wanted that down for the record.
I also won’t take up too many paragraphs bemoaning the state of the media – but I will say that it’s become increasingly difficult to find places where it’s possible to write about a brand new artist who hasn’t yet blown up on TikTok or whatnot. Advertisers, media culture, attention spans, “outlets” who don’t really write anything other than rage bait and plenty of people who fall for it constantly, I could go on. I guess that’s a huge part of why we started this newsletter to begin with, to have a place to do the work that is becoming extinct. And if that makes me a dinosaur….well, fucking roar I guess?
Anyway, I spent the weekend thinking about all this because I spent the weekend listening to the new EP from Abbie Callahan (well, let's be real: I also kept listening to the new Tyler Childers, but that will keep going on for a while, because I am a fun person and like life), called Grossly Aware. Abbie is a Belmont grad, who wracked up songwriting awards there, and also apparently appeared on the Voice at some point. Grossly Aware feels more like an album to me than an EP, but I'm in the "albums can be five songs if you want and EPs should be extinct" category of things, mostly because Nashville likes to force artists to release EPs to test the waters.
Abbie's talked about being influenced by Sierra Ferrell among others, and that's definitely apparently here, down to the headdress she wears on the EP art (fun fact, the very multi-talented Kassi Ashton art directed the project). The first song is also called "The Garden," which is the name of one of my Sierra favorites, but these songs aren't derivative: instead, they're smart, well-written and gorgeously sung country songs that let modern influences in with a gentle ease. "The Garden" opens with a little ethereal flourish, and opens into a catchy chorus about keeping the faith when things feel shitty (and boy do we all need that now). "Yo-Yo" is a country radio in a better world bop, while "Strawberry, California" is a pitch-perfect sweeping slow burn about lost love and lost place.
I am extremely partial, though, to the fast plucking, next-gen Kacey Musgraves/Brandy Clark "Marry Jane," which is actually a fun play on words in a genre where that tradition often gets too tired (it needs to work, friends). It's one of those songs that carries joy in its melodies but deep sadness in its heart: unlike "Girl Crush," which is just pining, this is about a woman actually seeing another woman in secret, and feeling like she can't leave her shitty husband for the one she actually loves. I guess this is the kind of thing that needs to take off on social media for folks to find it, and maybe it's on its way with over 600k spins on Spotify and rising. The album (EP, sorry!) ends on a spare, heartbreak ballad: "I'll Bring Flowers."
Well, I'm grossly aware
that someday they'll come a year
when you stop leaving breadcrumbs
and you just leave me starving here
think that's my biggest fear
Phew. It's so hard to leave shit behind: a lover, a relationship, a friendship, a place. Maybe even a craft. Things change, the landscape shifts. At least we're all Grossly Aware. Roar, I guess.
