Song Premiere: Caitlin Canty, “Motel”
If you’re able to focus on anything other than Caitlin Canty’s quiet and compelling voice (hard, I know, but try), it’ll be impossible NOT to notice just how much Russ Pahl’s pedal steel adds to “Motel.”
In fact, once you notice Pahl on “Motel,” you start to notice all the other musicians on the new album, ‘Motel Bouquet.’ Each takes a turn working to add balance and depth to Canty’s already thoughtful lyrics and phrasing (helped along at times by Aoife O’Donovan on harmony vocals). Stuart Duncan picks up the fiddle every now and again, Paul Kowert’s on bass; it’s Jerry Roe on drums and percussion, and producer Noam Pikelny on electric guitar and banjo. A talented ensemble cast, to say the least, and one that showed up to provide support to a musician who takes great advantage of what’s being offered to her.
“Releasing this record feels like a sigh after a long haul,” Canty says. And that makes a lot of sense, especially when you know it’s something she worked on while she was on the move – not only touring around the country in the wake of 2015’s ‘Reckless Skyline,’ but also while she packed up her car and moved from her native Vermont to her new home: Nashville, Tennessee.
The end result of the move? An album to be proud of: “I couldn’t be happier with this record – the way it sounds, and the way it went down,” Canty says. “Making music with this band made me fall in love with making records again.”
That sense of falling in love and feeling content and peaceful is especially obvious in “Motel.” It is, Canty notes, “about as direct and sunny as my songs get. I woke up in California feeling truly rested and happy for the first time in a long time.”
And it IS a happy song, albeit a quiet one. Of course, without being able to dive into Canty’s head and explore her personal inspirations, you can’t know exactly what it’s all about. But, with lines like “It was love that broke my sorrow/Like the day breaks all night,” you can guess that “Motel” just might be about a new love. More than that, it seems to hint toward a love – and a sense of contentment – that’s a whole lot stronger than anything that has come before.
‘Motel Bouquet’ will be released on March 30 via Tone Tree Music and is available for pre-order now – HERE.
