Hello! I’m writing to you on Election Day, either from a blissful or ordinary past.
Either way, Grace Pettis’ sleek “Drop Another Pin” is going to be the song we need to listen to: either because we need the escapism or because it’s nice to have something to ride an optimistic wave with. Pettis’ lyrics are clever, with each verse describing a new stop in her nomadic childhood.
“Remember when we woke up one day and the whole world had changed? We lost jobs. We lost houses. We lost our savings. We lost faith in our government, and in our society. Maybe we even lost family and friends to a deadly pandemic,” Pettis writes of the song. “Now, more than ever, the idea that nothing is permanent or safe is real to me….We can only live in the moment we’re in, the best that we can, getting comfortable with change, and trying to stay centered in the present. I’m happiest when I’m able to center myself within my own little dot on the map, in the midst of constant change.”
Pettis is the winner of many of the nation’s most prestigious songwriting contests, including NPR’s Mountain Stage New Song Contest, and has received grants from the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation. Grace’s songs have been recorded by other esteemed artists, including Sara Hickman and Ruthie Foster, and she added to her songwriting accomplishments in 2019 by signing a publishing deal with BMG. Her highly-acclaimed independently released records, Grace Pettis (2009), Two Birds (2012), and the acoustic EP, Blue Star in a Red Sky (2018), have garnered praise. Grace also holds-down duties as a member (along with Rebecca Loebe and BettySoo) of the Americana/folk-pop trio Nobody’s Girl.
Grace has been steadily garnering attention for several years.
If you like what you hear, I urge you to check out her other single “Landon,” a breathtakingly gorgeous attempt to make amends for having a limited outlook on life, even though it’s too late.
Grace Pettis — Official, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify