What do we owe ourselves? What do we owe our past and future? For Brooks Dixon, that existential questioning has led to the song “After All.” With a warm, worn voice reminiscent of M Lockwood Porter, Dixon seeks to get to the truth of why we’re here and what we’ll leave behind, and he’s taking Libby Rodenbough (Mipso) and Taylor McCleskey (Beach Tiger) along for the ride.
Like his home amongst the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Dixon’s sound represents a meeting place of Appalachian folk, classic folk-pop singer-songwriters like James Taylor and Bob Dylan, Carolina beach music, and traditional Motown soul. Dixon began performing his original music as a student at Clemson University first taking the stage in 2012. Dixon’s acoustic performances lead to the recording of his first EP, the independently released “Stone Pile” in 2014.
“I wrote this song from a bit of a writer’s block, mostly revolving around my own frustrations with even attempting to do something original. Music is really 12 notes after all, and I came to the realization that that struggle for originality/equity is a trademark of my generation overall,” Dixon writes to Adobe & teardrops. “So the main theme is just that: embrace that there is nothing truly original, and go ahead and make something. In the same way, there is comfort to know that the immense pressure that comes along with that desire to be original, is something you can just let go and create anyways.”