Photographed by Melissa Madison Fuller

The first Robert Kelly song I heard was his Christmas single last year. It was one of the many songs I shared during last years Merry Music Monday series, and I promised to share more of Robert’s music again. So here I am, doing so, finally.

What was I waiting for? I’d already listened to his album We Are Poetry about a dozen times. I knew what song I wanted to share. But with talk of the two of us grabbing beers in Nashville, I decided to wait to meet Robert in person. At the end of September, I found out that to share a table with Robert is to be in the presence of joy, a contagious personality, and of course; talent. He radiates the catchy energy of songs like “We Are Poetry,” and you leave knowing you’ve met the genuine man that comes out in my favorite tune from his album, “Running Faster.”

Stream: “We Are Poetry”

02 We Are Poetry

Stream: “Running Faster”

09 Running Faster

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Raised in:
Allen, Texas. It’s a suburb of Dallas where football reigns supreme and everyone drives a big truck (I played football and drove a big truck, go figure). I have two wonderful parents who did the raising, and a sister who I terrorized during the raising, and we’re really close now!

Lives in:
Nashville, Tennessee

Favorite thing about We Are Poetry:
The opportunity to make it. I had just graduated from college and thought “what I need to do to be a singer/songwriter is make an album…and what I really need to make an album is some money.”  So I worked at a fancy cocktail bar in Nashville for a while, saved up, and got to have a blast making an album with extremely talented new friends that really represents me, and it’s been a huge adventure ever since, wandering around playing lots of shows.

How the South influences your sound:
The South influences my songwriting in a huge way because when I began taking music seriously in seventh grade, I wanted to be a country singer.  I wore boots, jeans, a hat, and even had the half black/half white shirt like Garth Brooks. That’s definitely changed, but even more than that, the South, to me, means long, hot summers, driving with the windows down blasting The Rocket Summer, fun., or John Mayer. I like to think I bring that with me everywhere I go.

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Download We Are Poetry on iTunes!

Photographed by Breezy Baldwin

Last week, while Mark was at Catalyst, I got this text from him: Look up Johnnyswim. Musicians. Pretty sweet. From Nashville. I was enjoying a PSL at Starbucks like the rest of ‘Merica, working on my laptop, and did so immediately. The only thing Mark got wrong about them was that they aren’t pretty sweet – they’re really sweet.

The married duo have just got it. Abner was trained at the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida and Amanda…well, Amanda spent her summers touring the world as a backup singer for her mother, The Queen of Disco…Donna Summer.

As their album played, and I let Mark know that yes, he’d recommended something great, I fell hard for their velvet voices and well crafted lyrics – perfectly displayed in the final track of their EP, “Annie.” Then there’s the title track “Home,” digging into the popular trend of songs about home right now with an upbeat sound, insanely complimenting harmonies, and their simple but heart striking words: “Oh, I love me some home.”

The icing on the cake for me was the story behind their band name. I’m a sucker for a fun band name and have a few of my own written down. I know the origins of 6 bands names that are inspiring as well as so many more. A band name truly represents the band, so of course, there’s usually a cool story behind it. You know, just in case. Amanda said in an interview with Global Grind that JOHNNYSWIM is “about a guy named Johnny on the movie Jaws. He was trying to get away from Jaws on his raft and his friend yelled from the dock ‘Swim Johnny, Swim!'” Amazing.

Stream: “Heart Beats”

01 Heart Beats

Be excited – you can download Home, Vol.1 for free on their website.

Bonus: they perform new material (and covers!) on their New Music Mondays installment over at their YouTube channel.

Photographed by Leslie Ryan McKeller

How could I not share a song called “Birmingham” by a Charleston based duo who met in Athens? Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst, who formed two years ago, were introduced to me by my friend Tyler. I came home from my almost-a-full-month vacation to a ton of music in my Spotify inbox, this being one of the many albums. Their band name, Shovels & Rope, is what made me decide to listen to their album first. It’s a little creepy sounding. I had to hear it.

O’ Be Joyful is catchy and gritty and fun and country and rock and southern and weird and raw and just really, really dang good. The more I dig into it, the more unique it sounds, and the more I fall in love with it. These two are now on my must-see-live list after reading this on Saving Country Music: “Michael Trent is like the rock that Cary Ann swings around as the two swap instruments in a very stripped down setup of guitar, bass drum, and other orphaned percussive accoutrements procured along the way that they play too loudly sometimes and mostly in-time.” And let’s talk about how cool their documentary teaser is. I’m now dreaming of a trip to Charleston to take her up when she sings “Come to Carolina and your drinks are on me.”

01 Birmingham

Stream: “Birmingham”

Purchase O’ Be Joyful on iTunes. I’d also highly recommend enjoying/download their recently debuted Daytrotter Session.

Read about the documentary, The Ballad of Shovels and Rope, on Charleston City Paper.

Subscribe to Go Back Down South, my Spotify playlist for all the songs featured here.

Photographed in Nashville, TN

This post is long overdue, but when I found out that a new album was in the works, I figured I’d wait.

And it was worth it, y’all.

You’ve seen Drew and Ellie Holcomb here multiple times, and we’re blessed to call them friends with enormous talent. The photo above may look familiar, as those good looks were featured a while back (see here: Drew + Ellie). But let’s talk about their music…they’re insanely wonderful music.

I always say that a good cover is the way to my heart. Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors (Ellie, Nate, Rich, and Jon) have won my heart all over again with their new album, Through the Night – Live in the Studio, a collection of their ten favorite songs recorded in Drew’s hometown of Memphis. From Bob Dylan to U2, they kill it with their own take on the songs. It’s impossible for me to single out one song from the album as my favorite, but I’m sharing their cover of Tom Waits “Picture in a Frame” for two reasons: 1) They just released their music video for it and 2) Because Drew said this about the song:

The song we recorded, “Picture in a Frame”, is a song we have covered more than any other over the years. It speaks about love over a lifetime. In just four minutes, you get the complete story, the first look to the last look, a glimpse of the lifetime in between. It’s a novel in a few short breaths. I want to be the narrator in the song, to love someone “till the wheels come off” and my years are through.

09 Picture in a Frame

Stream: “Picture in a Frame” 

As if this post wasn’t sexy enough already, Drew & Ellie said that I can share what will go down as one my favorite covers…ever. Back when they ran a Kickstarter for Chasing Someday, there was no way we weren’t going to support the making of their new album. That album is gold. The goldest of gold, actually…and so is the cover we requested in exchange for our monies. Originally, I was going to request a Lady GaGa cover, which I know would have been out of this world, let’s be honest, but we decided to ask for something that we’d truly cherish: friends covering one of our all time favorite songs. Enjoy it below. We’re crazy about it.

9 Crimes

Stream: “9 Crimes” (Damien Rice cover)

Bonus: their albums are discounted all summer on iTunes, so buy on!

Photographed in Athens, GA via iPhone

Explosions in the Sky was my introduction to the instrumental indie rock world. I was in high school, and I’d heard nothing like it. Their album How Stange, Innocence, changed my music world as I knew it. These little mini symphonies blew my mind, one that was, at the time, full of Blink 182. They stirred emotions in ways that I didn’t know music could, and for that, I will be ever indebted to their work. With every album they released, my love grew deeper for this Austin band.

Mark and I went to their show at Georgia Theatre on Thursday night, and I lost it twice. I was in such awe, blown away by the loudest music I’d ever heard.

Their much deserved popularity skyrocketed both from the Friday Night Lights movie and show.
Moment of silence to remember the best TV show ever………
Without a doubt, “Your Hand in Mine” from The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place is one of their most popular songs, and definitely one of my favorites. This post wouldn’t be right without sharing it.

02 Your Hand in Mine [W_Strings]

Stream: “Your Hand in Mine (W/ Strings)” … then do yourself a favor and listen to the full version.

Their 2011 release, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care is mostly dominated by drummer Chris Hrasky’s drum kit, and I’m a big fan of it. Pitchfork Media puts it perfectly:

The guitars tend to hang on particular figures or throw up an e-bowed haze, and Hrasky is the one who can cut through that. On “Trembling Hands” his drum kit is the lead instrument as he unleashes Keith Moon-worthy torrents of snare, tom, and cymbal, throwing himself at the guitars as though they were a wall to break through.

03 – Trembling Hands

Stream: “Trembling Hands”

Do yourself one more favor and watch the “Postcard from 1972” music video. It’s one of the most beautiful videos I’ve ever seen and also another favorite song from their latest album.

Photographed by Jamie Clayton

To prove that not every reality show is a waste of time, I discovered Elenowen on the first season of The Voice. Their rendition of “Falling Slowly” left me speechless, and that evening I snagged their album, Pulling Back the Veil, on iTunes, officially becoming a fan. At the end of May, Elenowen released a new EP, and I was blown away again. From start to finish, all five songs are solid. I am just so glad that Elenowen had the chance to earn recognition from the reality show ‘The Voice’, because I know I am not the only one that would’ve snagged their music after hearing their performance. It doesn’t come as much surprise that she got recognized this way, after all the show is incredibly popular, and the huge target audience that TV gets these days, would have seen adverts and clips to intrigue them into it! You can even find some of these Infinity Dish data statistics to back this up, here! After all, TV is popular especially in the evenings when people sit down for some wind-down time and to spend time with their family with this some entertainment. However, it’s a shame that not all amazing artists get this platform to share their talent and music! It’s truly unjustifiable that some people are putting out great music and getting no plays on Spotify and other platforms and just getting swamped under the hundreds of thousands of other artists. It would help if these artists purchased their own Spotify plays; this would boost them up and make them more easily noticed by possible fans. With the success Elenowen is receiving currently, they won’t need to buy any Spotify plays any time soon! Josh and Nicole are touring the south this summer and were kind enough to pause a moment to let us get to know them a bit.

02 Blood and Bones

Stream: “Blood and Bones”

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Raised in:
Josh: Knoxville, Tennessee
Nicole: Franklin, Tennessee

Lives in:
Nashville, Tennessee

A few words about the recently released EP:
We’ve spent the past couple years really honing in on what our sound is, and this EP is a good summary of what we’ve learned & where we’re headed. It’s a more defined, duo sound that focuses on the struggles and victories we’ve faced as a married couple & as human beings. We also try to maintain a high level of honesty and vulnerability in each song so listeners can connect to each song.

Favorite southern getaway spot:
Josh’s parent’s lake house on Lake Loudon in Lenoir City, Tennessee. This is where we fell in love as 15 and 16 year olds – building fires, grilling out, cliff jumping, tubing, etc. Can’t beat it.

Now would ya look at that:
Photographed by Jamie in Nashville with a Rolleiflex.

On Him:

• Nordstrom sunglasses.
• Hanes v-neck.
• Salt Valley western shirt.
• Levi’s 510 jeans.
• Frye boots.

On Her:

• San Diego Hat Co. found at TJ Maxx.
• Earrings from Pangaea in Nashville.
• Nordstrom sunglasses.
• Free People dress.
• Target leather wedges.

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Buy Elenowen EP on iTunes or stream on Spotify.

Subscribe to Go Back Down South, my Spotify playlist for all the songs featured here.