New York City-based singer-songwriter Zephaniah OHora sings about the relationships you just can't let go of on "Black & Blue," the latest release from his forthcoming album Listening To The Music (out August 27).
"Not long ago you made promises you couldn't keep/ You had me believing that all I was needing was you," OHora sings. "I was willing to go down any road I had to go/ Is there a difference between me and you/ or black and blue?"
OHora says the song is about two people who are so much alike that they can't seem to walk away from each other.
"'Black & Blue' is the age old story of being in a relationship with someone who has many of the same tendencies as yourself. Someone that always seems to walk back into your life after you've finally walked out on the deal. Someone you find it easy to blame your relationship problems on until you eventually realize that really they're not that different from you," OHora tells Wide Open Country. "I wrote it back in 2016 just after I finished recording my first album, This Highway."
Written and recorded in Brooklyn, N.Y., Listening to the Music is OHora's follow-up to his critically-acclaimed 2017 album This Highway. The New Hampshire-raised, New York-based artist, who names Merle Haggard and Gram Parsons among his influences, is dispelling the notion that country music can't come from the big city.
"People think you have to be from Texas or Nashville to play this music," OHora says in a press release. "But that's not the way I see it. Country's all about being true to yourself and telling honest, authentic stories. You can do that anywhere."
In fact, OHora credits The Big Apple with sparking his love for classic country.
"It was actually New York that first introduced me to country music," OHora says. "When I moved here, I wasn't actually playing all that much, but I was really into collecting old records. The more of those classic country albums I discovered around the city, the more I studied and absorbed the structure and the spirit of the music."
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