Notable country songwriter Drew Kennedy releases a self-titled collection of songs that sum up his 25 years of writing great material.
~ Courtesy Sarah Frost PR
By all accounts, Drew Kennedy is a man, and a songwriter, full of heart. After 11 albums and two decades of writing songs for himself and with others–Lori McKenna, Wade Bowen and Randy Rogers among them–he’s finally releasing a self-titled album, out May 18. “Halo” is out now -a song designated for who Kennedy was pre-songwriting.
“I enjoyed getting to re-examine all of these young memories and feelings on some of the songs that ended up on the record,” Kennedy says. ‘I’m always so focused on what’s next that it was nice to spend a little time uncovering how I even got here in the first place.”
“’Halo’ is about those moments I used to take just beyond the reach of a front porch light before a first date to gather myself, give myself a pep talk, count down from ten before walking up to ring the bell, then counting down from ten one more time because I wasn’t ready after the last ten before walking up to ring the bell,” he continues. “You get the picture.”
Kennedy’s last album, 2022’s Marathon, was created in a small house in a tiny, far West Texas town with all of the doors and windows open—resulting is a vivid and immersive ode to a corner of the world that the singer-songwriter has fallen in love with over the years. He promised his producer, Davis Naish, that if he agreed to do the record that way, he would record his next one at his studio in LA. While choosing songs for the album, Naish picked six out of the 20 that were solo writes. He said he wanted to be the producer to take the snapshot of the songwriter 25 years in—and here it is: Kennedy’s first self-titled record.
“These are songs that I wrote for me and for the kid who I was before there were songs, and songs for the future,” Drew says.
“I finally get to write with the best—truly the best songwriters in the world after all of this time–and I end up making a record of 100%ers,” he continued. “Go figure.”
Drew Kennedy finds the songwriter mining his experiences for an accurate picture of who he is—and was. Within songs like “She’s Looking Into Mine,” “Movie Poster” and “I Can’t See Your Face,” he focuses on what made him who he is.
“It’s funny what details remain and what details escape you when you dig back into your past,” he says of the latter. “This song is by no means autobiographical in its specific storyline—although a lot of those scenes are vivid memories from somewhere in the dusty attic of my brain—it’s more an extrapolation of Willie Nelson’s quote, “’Ninety-nine percent of the world’s lovers are not with their first choice. That’s what makes the jukebox play.’”
Elsewhere, he’s focusing on the present. “I Want It All” was written very much in the moment: folded up like origami in the window seat of a crowded Southwest flight from Nashville to San Antonio as he headed home.
“The miracle of air travel is that a passenger can make quick time of a long distance. The curse of air travel is that the previous is only possible if the weather perfectly cooperates,” he says. “This is a song about the sacrifices made over the two-decades plus that I’ve been at it, and about the drive that keeps pushing me to soldier on.”
Weaved throughout are pieces of his personal history; “Lizzie” is the story of his great-grandmother, an Irish immigrant, and “A Picture Nobody’s Taking” is for his wife.
“I wrote this song to highlight what an honor it is to be able to log someone’s journey in your mind and in your heart. With photographs and songs. Elation and heartbreak,” he says. “Aging together isn’t the easiest thing to do in the world, but once I started thinking about what a gift it is to be able to stand up and say ‘I saw it. I saw all of it. I was there…’”
“Keep Mind Of the Wind” closes the album, a heartfelt declaration with lines like “I’m a wire for a bird / I’m the current within / I’m the problem with people / When they think the problem ain’t them.” It was written on a long walk as part of a songwriting challenge from his producer.
“I’m not even sure I understand a lot of what ‘Keep Mind Of The Wind’ even is,” he says. “It’s almost like I was just trying to stay out of its way. Sometimes songs show up that way. After 25 years of writing them I’ve at least learned that much.”
