The best part of working on Adobe & Teardrops are the online friendships I’ve made along the way. With Grover Anderson, it clicked pretty quickly. Not only is he a remarkable lyricist, he’s also a high school English teacher, so we have a lot to bond over. With each new release, Anderson’s brand of Americana keeps getting better and better: the music may be gentle, but the lyrics are sharp-eyed. On “Willie Nelson,” Anderson indulges his curiosity in couples who choose “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain” as their wedding song…and what happens when the prophecy is fulfilled.
For years, Grover Anderson wrestled with his commitment to holding a day job. Always eager to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter, the desire to start and support a family landed one all-important notch higher on life’s priority list. For the last six years he’s been making both work—teaching high school English & drama in his small mountain town of Murphys, CA; building a devout local following; and touring the US in the summer. He released four albums and played in 23 states, yet still he wondered if he’d given short shrift to a dream. Then 2020 happened, and as he witnessed the hardships endured by career performers, Grover had never felt more fortunate to hold a secondary gig.
At the beginning of last year, Grover and his bandmate Josh Certo began mapping out songs for what was to be Grover’s fifth album. The intent was to use the recordings as a foundation on which their band, Grover Anderson & the Lampoliers, could collaborate through a busy year of gigs and rehearsals. When lockdown began, their project quickly changed directions—Grover, Josh, Marshall Henry, and Anthony Delaney recorded their parts in home studios, sharing tracks virtually to create a fundamentally different album.
“I love living in a small town, but the stereotype of everyone knowing your business is very true,” Nelson writes. “When you go through a major life event, you’d better be ready to get asked about it. ‘Willie Nelson’ is about two folks who just went through a divorce; they’re going to be okay eventually, but getting asked ‘How are you doing?’ over and over again is starting to wear them down. The root of the story is that, long ago, they’d chosen ‘Blue Eyes Cryin’ In the Rain’ for ‘their song.’
“I’ve been asked to play a lot of weddings, and sometimes the song I’m asked to play causes a double-take—’You know this is a sad song about love’s dissolution, right?’ It’s always piqued my interest, so I spent a long time considering an angle from which to approach it. When I settled on a duet, I wrote it with Kelly in mind; she used to front a folk outfit called The Little Fuller Band that I loved, and I’m grateful she was kind enough to lend her voice to the track.”
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