Lauren Lucas 11/5/19 Lauren Lucas 11/5/19

Joy and Cheer

Lauren Lucas holiday EP cover cropped.jpg

I have a confession to make: I am the type of person who starts listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween. I keep my radio dial in the car set to the station that plays all Christmas all the time starting on Thanksgiving day. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a December tradition, and I DVR The Holiday Baking Championship so that I can watch it when my husband relinquishes the remote. My only redeeming quality around holiday time is that I do wait until Thanksgiving before putting up the tree.

So why, might you ask, has it taken this holiday nut so long to release my own Christmas music? I don’t have a really good answer, but I’m thrilled to say it’s happening!

Joy and Cheer, my new holiday EP, is available starting this week on Friday, November 8th. Here’s a little bit about it:

I teamed up with my friend, Park Chisolm (Kevin Costner & The Modern West/Aubrie Sellers), on production. Park played most of the instruments on this three song project, with the exception of the second track: a song I co-wrote with my friend, Matt Ridenour (Jonny Lang/Julie Roberts) called, “I’d Be Fine with Christmas Time”. Michael Rinne from Miranda Lambert’s band laid down a sweet upright bass part on the track, and Adam Wright (Lee Ann Womack/Bruce Robison), played the Rhodes piano. That’s me you’ll hear on electric guitar and Wurlitzer on a few tracks.

I’ve heard it said that a sculptor doesn’t chisel an image out of the rock. Rather, they chisel the rock away little by little and allow the image to appear. That’s how making this EP felt. We didn’t record in a big fancy studio. Most of the recording was done in my upstairs guest room over several weeks. We lit some candles that smelled like pine trees and hung a wreath on the door for some extra vibe. It was such a fun, relaxed and joyful way to create. We didn’t have a lot of answers going in. We allowed each song to come alive the way it wanted to.

Probably one of my favorite nights of recording was when a small group of friends came over for pizza and wine, and we all gathered around a microphone to sing layers and layers of choir-like vocals on the Ray Charles classic, “That Spirit of Christmas”. A huge “thank you” to Shannon Wright, Sara Beck, Kimberly Quinn, Matt Ridenour and Park Chisolm for lending your insanely talented voices to this project.

The final song on the EP is the Irish folk song to which no one ever knows the words, but is sung every year at New Years: “Auld Lang Syne". The haunting melody is so beautiful to me. We kept this track super sparse and let the melody and emotion be the stars of the show.

Beginning November 8th, you can download and stream the EP from your favorite digital retailer (Apple Music, Spotify, etc.). I’m also offering a holiday bundle on my website, www.laurenlucas.com, which includes a signed physical copy of the EP along with a hand-made custom ornament.

My hope for this project is that you will savor it over a cup of morning coffee curled up on the couch on the weekend; that it will be the soundtrack to your family opening gifts, or the music you play during your holiday dinner. Most of all, I hope this music brings you joy and cheer year after year.

Lauren Lucas 5/31/19 Lauren Lucas 5/31/19

Back to the Basics

I participated in a three-day intensive creative writing workshop with one of my musical heroes: Jonatha Brooke. Read on to see what happened…

Almost four weeks ago, I participated in a three-day intensive creative writing workshop with one of my musical heroes: Jonatha Brooke. Jonatha is a folk/rock singer-songwriter and now playwright whose career began in Boston with the duo, The Story. I was introduced to her through her solo work back in college. I took a songwriting class at Belmont and one of the guys in the class kept going on and on about Jonatha Brooke. I took a listen and immediately fell in love with her lyrics, the musicianship on the record, and her vocal delivery.

Soon after my discovery, the local indie radio station in Nashville, Lightning 100, started playing her single, "Linger," on heavy rotation. I performed that song for my senior recital in order to graduate. So, you see, my love affair with Jonatha Brooke goes waaaay back.

When I was signed to Warner Bros., I got the chance to meet her at an afterparty for the ACM's or CMA's... I honestly can't remember which. This was around 2004 or 2005. I had just performed a set with my band at the party, got off the stage, and saw her in the crowd. I totally fan-girled her (can I use fan-girl as a verb?). Anyway, she was so kind and she was even gracious enough to snap the picture that's at the top of the page.

Earlier this winter, I was listening to a playlist on Spotify and the app populated a tour date for Jonatha in Nashville in May. I haven't seen her perform in years. No way was I missing this show! So, I clicked on the link, surfed her tour page, and discovered she was also leading a creative writing workshop in Nashville the days leading up to her show. What is life?! How can this be?!

So, I took myself back to school. Jonatha School. 20 other participants from all over the world and I bared our souls by sharing unfinished seedlings of song ideas. We walked around Vanderbilt in tempo like crazy people to shake loose new song ideas. We played instruments we'd never played before and tried tunings we never could have dreamed up on our own. We even sat in front of the room and (gulp!) got a song critiqued in front of the whole class. We went back to the basics.

Going back to the basics can be frustrating and hard. I'm impatient. That weekend, I learned that the basics were exactly what I needed. The experience was exciting, hard, emotional, inspiring and even spiritual. Actually, it was mostly spiritual. For me, anyway. It's opened up my writing in the most exciting ways! I was groomed on co-writing. It's the Nashville way (at least since the mid-90's). A few years ago, a songwriting friend encourage me to write more on my own. It felt scary. I'd get stuck and not know how to finish it. So, I'd use the beginning I'd created as an idea to present to a co-writer at my next appointment. On one hand, I felt accomplished that I had contributed an idea. On the other, I let myself down time and time again by not sticking with the song when it got tough. I needed to learn how to do the work. How to dig in, dig deeper, and where to even start excavating!

Now, I'm at least beginning to better understand how to do the work. I got to crawl inside the brain of one of my biggest inspirations to learn, to improve, and to understand how she teases out lyric ideas, creates interesting melodies and gets herself unstuck. It was exactly what I needed to reinvigorate my own creativity. I also received major impact from the other 20 creative souls participating in this workshop and getting to hear the inspiring and important things they had to say through their art.

Based on my recent experience, I encourage you to stretch yourself, no matter what your career or passion. Don't be afraid to get schooled. Get uncomfortable. Play. Go back to the basics. I promise you'll surprise yourself.

Lauren Lucas 5/1/19 Lauren Lucas 5/1/19

Vintage

Earlier this week, I received a text from my friend, John, telling me that New Country Brew is featuring Farewell Angelina's recording of, "Vintage!" New Country Brew is a radio show syndicated in 43 stations around the country and in the UK on CMR Nashville.

Many of you know that Farewell Angelina is a sisterhood I'm so proud to be a part of. Once an Angelina, always an Angelina. And I'm thrilled to have written three of the songs on their current EP. These women have worked so hard and are kicking butt on the road!

Vintage is one of my personal favorites that I've written with FA. Nic, Andrea, Lisa and I penned this tune with long-time friend and musical badass, Joe West. It was inspired by one word that Joe threw out as an idea: vintage.

We wrote this tune at Joe's gorgeous home studio out in the country. His studio is built inside of an old barn with platinum records hanging on the walls and the random Grammy award sitting on the studio console. No big deal.

The acoustics, lighting, and entire vibe of this place is conducive for songwriting magic. It took a while to wrestle the lyric down, but finding the lyrical angle is probably the most fun for me. Once we got a handle on it and a sweet guitar riff, it flowed like wine. I even got to squeeze a line in the chorus about my husband's '68 Camaro. I won some major bonus points for that one on the home front.

Here's an acoustic songwriter take of the tune from yours truly. See if New Country Brew is syndicated in your area and crank it up! And, for sure, check out Farewell Angelina's studio recording of, "Vintage" off of their new EP.