Illinois-based Americana trio The Deep Hollow's new single "Carry Me Home" adds new lyrical depth to a familiar story. Members Micah Walk, Elizabeth Eckert and Dave Littrell consider a familiar conundrum: some artists must leave their small town to grow creatively and commercially, but the best songs come from a lingering love of a simpler home-town existence.
"This song is about taking a leap of faith and knowing that at the end of the day, if things don't go your way, you can always come back home," Eckert says. "It's about taking chances so you won't look back and have any regrets."
Lyrical inspiration hit Eckert suddenly while she was out exercising. "Micah had sent me a voice memo of a guitar part he had written, and it sort of just fell out," she adds. "I was basically sprinting home so that I could make sure I didn't forget any of the lyrics!"
The new song teases the fuller sound captured on forthcoming album Weary Traveler, out Oct. 26. Instead of resting on the laurels of its self-titled 2016 debut album, featuring American Songwriter Magazine's 30th Anniversary Song Contest winner "Devil," the trio saw a new release as a chance to further flesh out their storytelling chops and musical accompaniment. To realize their ambitions, they brought in producer Gary Gordon (Montgomery Gentry, David Davis & the Warrior River Boys).
With its three-part harmonies sounding richer, "Carry Me Home" might just crush it in some other songwriting contest. The band tells its own small-town stories and speak for strangers throughout an album that also features the politically-charged story about homelessness titled "Freedom Street" and a tale about suicide called "Anna's Gone."
The Springfield trio shines brightest, though, when dealing with small-town folks' balancing of rural alienation and down-home comfort. Anyone who's ever blamed their own limitations on geography, only to find new struggles in an urban setting, will begrudgingly relate to their newest single.
