Categories
Female Lead Tennessee

Unheard Nashville, Tennessee Soul Music

Marching On by Kyshona Armstrong

Kyshona (KUH-shauna) Armstrong creates empowering music from her new home in Nashville, Tennessee. On February 28th, she released her newest album, Listen. It blends rock, blues, and R&B with uplifting lyrics. Kyshona Armstrong currently sits at 3,549 monthly listeners on Spotify making her a perfect candidate for our Artist Spotlight.

Kyshona’s mission it to heal people. She started her career as a music therapist. She and her clients would write songs together. She even worked with inmates. Eventually she felt the need to branch out and create her own music, but she never forgot her roots. Her songs are filled with empowering, uplifting lyrics to encourage the forgotten and marginalized.

I reached out to Kyshona Armstrong to find out where the song Marching On came from and what it means to her, and she was awesome enough to respond. But first, enjoy Marching On, the 9th song on Kyshona Armstrong’s album Listen.

Lyrics

Many the miles that I have traveled
So much pain I had to rise above
So many dreams have come unraveled
Still waiting for my love

I hear a distant Hallelujah
singing a change is gonna come

I can still find a song in this old guitar
I can still see a light in that dying star
I hear that jubilee choir and its singing into the dawn
Keep on Marching, child
Keep on Marching on
The road it may be long, but keep on marching on

Many the men who have fallen
by the hand of a mighty few
But we can hear their voices calling
children we’ve passed the flame on to you

I hear a distant Hallelujah
singing We shall not be moved

I can still find a song in this old guitar
I can still see a light in that dying star
I hear that jubilee choir and its singing into the dawn
Keep on Marching, child
Keep on Marching on
The road it may be long, but keep on marching on

I can still find a song in this old guitar
I can still see a light in that dying star
I hear that jubilee choir and its singing into the dawn
Keep on Marching, child
Keep on Marching on
The road it may be long, but keep on marching on

I hear a distant Hallelujah
singing We shall Overcome

I can still find a song in this old guitar
I can still see a light in that dying star
I hear that jubilee choir and its singing into the dawn
Keep on Marching, child
Keep on Marching on
The road it may be long, but keep on marching on

Diving Deep

I really dig the electric instruments in this song with the persistent beat. This instrumental combination gives the song a lot of power which is only amplified by Kyshona’s dynamic vocals. Kyshona was kind enough to give me details about how the song was created and how the meaning has changed for her in light of recent events.

“Marching On was written following a conversation with my co-writers, Simon Gugala and Jason White. Simon had the chorus in mind and it got us thinking about all the things that are lost when we chose to only focus on lack.

In the time of protests and pandemic, this song had taken a more pointed meaning that no matter how long the road and difficult the journey, we must continue to march for those that came before us and for those that follow our lead. Shifting our focus from what is wrong with the world, to what we can purposefully do to make it better.”

Yes. We can all look around and see that something is wrong with this world, but let’s not stop there. Surely there is something we can do to purposefully to make it better. What’s the first step?

Listen.

Kyshona Armstrong Performs Marching On live on Lost River Sessions

Visit Kyshona Armstrong’s website or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or Spotify.

Categories
Female Lead Music Tennessee

What Does Home Mean?

Oslo by De Joie

De Joie is singer/songwriter Kaley Rutledge. Her 7,780 monthly Spotify listeners makes her (by far) the most popular artist we have spotlighted so far. In De Joie’s first album she grapples with the idea of home. Kaley lives in Nashville, but she really found a sense home in her travels to Western Europe. These places impacted her so much that when she got back to the States she made an album of four songs, a song for each city she visited.

Oslo is the first song on De Joie’s album August and is my personal favorite. She mixes vox, strings, and synths to give this song a healing presence. In Olso, De Joie really captures the joy of thriving where you belong. Listening to this song put a smile on my face and I hope it will do the same for you. Lyrics and Analysis below.

Lyrics to Oslo by De Joie (courtesy of jiosaavn)

Can you hear me say “I love you” from across the sea?
Can you hear me whisper to you my dreams?
Well, the weather is fine here in Oslo
We’re about to jump on a plane to the west coast

There’s a view we can’t miss
I wouldn’t dream of it
There’s a view we can’t miss
I wouldn’t dream of it

I was born to be wild and free
Traipsing the coast line of some craggy beach
Go on and tell ’em I’m in good company
Wild and free


Can you hear me say, “I love you” from theses far way places?
All these wide open spaces seem to heal me

There’s a view we can’t miss
I wouldn’t dream of it

There’s a view we can’t miss
I wouldn’t dream of it

I was born to be wild and free
Traipsing the coast line of some craggy beach

Go on and tell ’em I’m in good company
Wild and free

DIVING DEEP

The concept of home has been something that I have thought a lot about over the last decade. It’s not just a physical space; instead it’s a near mythical land with powers to heal. Home is a place of recovery, our very own ICU that each of retreat to every day. This is an insane concept, but equally peculiar is that each of us rehab at our own unique center. How crazy is that!? Every one of us returns to our own distinct location for the same thing. Healing.

Kaley of De Joie does a fantastic job of exploring the concept of home. In the song Oslo we see two different homes. The first home is filled with the people she loves, but it is lacking. She has left it in search for something – Can you hear me say “I love you” from across the sea? Can you hear me whisper to you my dreams? We’re about to jump on a plane to the west coast. The second home is Oslo, which is also filled with people she loves, AND is a place where she finds healing – Well, the weather is fine here in Oslo. Go on and tell ’em I’m in good company. All these wide open spaces seem to heal me.

I really love how Kaley responds to the healing she receives when she finds home: She realizes she was born to be wild and free. This idea seems counterintuitive to me because before finding this new home Kaley was a wanderer, searching for home.. One could say that she was free to roam and be wild, but she did not feel that way.

However, when Kaley finds home, even though she is now tethered to a place (Oslo), she proclaims herself wild and free. How can we make sense of this?

It’s as if belonging to something or someone brings freedom while total independence produces turmoil. This is a thought worth sitting in, and for that I thank De Joie!

What do you think about home? What does home mean to you?

Sources
https://dejoiemusic.com/bio
https://www.jiosaavn.com/lyrics/oslo-lyrics/RwxYdhUIQ1A
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5oJYqPFbjnOksOFe7uOx9G?si=lU9yJgeQTVutw5Y2q_AR7A

Categories
California Music

This Is A Song of Increasing Intimacy

I Can Feel Your Heartbeat (featuring Jordan Frye) by A New Normal

A New Normal is a southern California band lead by Justin H. Wright. Justin describes A New Normal’s music as cinematic electronic, but the song ‘I Can Feel Your Heartbeat’ sounds more like a pop/rock anthem to me. Currently A New Normal is sitting at 2,170 monthly listeners making it a great candidate for our spotlight.

This song is split into two distinct parts. The first part gives you a low deep voice with the persistent bass drum and bass riff. The second part transforms you to a new scene; you’re at a party and everyone knows the words to the song. It’s actually kinda neat because it gives the song a sense of community.

LYRICS

Saw the fire in her eyes
I could hear her heartbeat
Felt the sunlight on my skin
As she laid beside me

Saw the heavens open up
As it rained down on me
Can’t remember what she said
But I could hear her heartbeat

I could hear her heartbeat (x4)

See the storm clouds up ahead
Say the words “I miss you”
I can’t remember what you said
But I could feel your heartbeat

Hear the heavens open up
As she laid beside me
See the fire in her eyes
I can feel your heartbeat

I can feel your heartbeat (x2)

In A New Normal’s bio on Spotify it says, “Every composition released by A New Normal is carefully crafted take the listener on a journey.” So what journey did we just take?

MY INTERPRETATION

This is a song of growing intimacy. The first half represents the infatuation phase. The second half represents a promise.

In the first half of the song we hear the repeating phrase, ‘I can hear her heartbeat.’ How close do you have to be to someone to hear their heartbeat?

So Close GIFs | Tenor

Exactly! He’s letting us know that he is in close relationship with this woman. You can also tell that he is committed to her because rain (As it rained down on me) or shine (Felt the sunlight on my skin) he is still right by her side. He can hear her heartbeat.

Then we get to the second part of the song and something really unusual has happened. We have gone from a very intimate setting to a public gathering. Also we see our first glance to the future, “See the storm clouds up ahead.” He’s not scared though. In fact, now he can FEEL her heartbeat. He has gotten closer to her.

Cat Hug GIF - Cat Hug Love GIFs

Finally, he is no longer singing about her, but to her. “I can feel your heartbeat.” And he is declaring this in the company of a crowd who is singing with him. This is an image of a wedding. The groom is publicly declaring his love to his betrothed in front of witnesses whose presence sings of approval.

In Summary, it’s just another song about a guy and a girl who have fallen in love, and I love it. What do you think? Do you get a different interpretation?

SOURCES

https://www.google.com/amp/s/genius.com/amp/A-new-normal-i-can-feel-your-heartbeat-lyrics
https://open.spotify.com/embed/artist/6VJnJ6OWeHKZzGlEumBPHa