Title: Too Far From Home
Release Date: August 19, 2012
Recorded: Blackbird Studio, Nashville, Tennessee
Genre: Country, Acoustic-Pop, Folk-Pop, Pop
Length: 54:02
Label: Studio60 Records!
Producer(s): Ellie-Grace Summers, Julian Morello
“Too Far From Home” is the sophomore studio album by American singer-songwriter ‘Ellie-Grace Summers’. It follows on from her Diamond certified debut album of 2011 that thrust the young country musician into the full spotlight of a watching and expectant music industry. It’s an album that contains within it just instrumentation and vocals from Ellie-Grace Summers, described from the songwriter herself,
“It’s almost entirely a solitary collection of music, there’s no session musicians helping out on electric guitar or bass or drums, it’s just my own instrument playing that features through the album, I play guitar, piano and mandolin throughout the twelve songs and the music is very traditional and rootsy which is something that I wanted the album to be.” She does however call upon the services of Misery Loves Company’s frontman ‘Ryan Williams’ for vocals and guitar on the second track from the album, ‘All The Beautiful Things’ which she described in a recent interview as wonderful and an easy process. She also enlists the help of Studio60 producer ‘Julian Morello’ who helped keep the album as stripped back and traditional as she had envisioned.
The album was recorded at Blackbird Studios and is the first time she has recorded in her hometown of Nashville since moving back there from Los Angeles earlier in the summer, it also marks her first full-length studio release under Studio60 Records after joining the label after the release of her debut and the subsequent closure of former label ‘Monk On Fire Music’ and it’s twelve song collection comes in at just under one hour in length. The lead single from the album ‘Wishing You Would’ was released on 1st July 2012 and peaked at number #3 on the singles chart, making it her highest charting single to date. The album was recorded between June and July 2012 and is set for release on August 19, 2012, by Studio60 Records.
BACKGROUND & RECORDINGEllie-Grace Summers began thinking about her next album around February 2012 and having spent time with her family in Tennessee in March she found herself beginning to write songs again following a less than productive couple of months of writers block in Los Angeles, she realised that being back in her hometown surroundings seemed to ignite her “songwriting bug” and she returned to California with close to ten fully formed songs that she could consider for her next album, however only three of those songs would end up on the albums Tracklisting despite being fully recorded. She then spent April and May back in California before deciding that she wanted to move back out to Nashville and to be closer to her family and also to record her sophomore album out there and as June arrived, she was back home, living with her parents until she found her new home, she recalls the process
“It was a little odd living with my parents again, I was waking up at five-thirty to head across town to the studio to work on my album while my father was waking up at that same time to go work on my uncle’s farm. It’s kinda bizarre that after living in Los Angeles and having that independence that I was now getting my father to drive me to the studio in his truck on his way to work. It’s definitely a weird kinda thing but it’s fun being back home, thankfully I found my place pretty quickly.”The album was recorded throughout June and July, while the first song completed was the album’s lead single ‘Wishing You Would’, it was completed in mid-June and released at the very beginning of July in order to build anticipation for the album, it’s lyrics like many on the album sing of the loneliness of love, as Ellie describes it herself,
“It’s not all fireflies under the moonlight and rainbows by the river, you know? It’s hard sometimes, you work at it and you grow but just because you have that person in your life, it doesn’t mean you don’t feel empty and lonely. People sing about love and relationships all throughout their careers because there is so many things that go into love, can you let yourself be vulnerable? I struggle with that, can you let other people in and let them know your deepest fears and feelings? I struggle with that too and that’s maybe one of my biggest downfalls, but we all try to understand it and believe in it and that’s often what I like to write about, I like to try to make sense of love and relationships, the good things and the bad things, but I don’t think we ever truly find out the answers to our questions.”The album also features songs and lyrics about homesickness that could be directly related to Ellie’s own more recent feelings having left California to return home,
“It’s an emotion that many people have felt before, it’s rough when you don’t have those things that you’ve always had around you anymore, but it’s something that we all have to do. When you’re becoming an adult you have to leave home and do the whole independent thing and it’s different and exciting but it can also be scary and lonely at times and I certainly don’t think it’s something to be taken lightly. We all get a little lost along the way but it’s what we learn in the process that really shapes the person that we become, I’ve learnt a lot from being in California but I was scared that I was losing my identity a little, I didn’t just want to be another person that’s most famous for being famous or for dating someone more famous than myself, I want to be known first and foremost for my achievements as a musician and songwriter, that’s all that I really hope for.”As the only real country artist in recent years to make the cross-over into the mainstream, you’d imagine that there would be a lot of pressure on Ellie-Grace to continue to fly the rather solitary flag for country music, but it’s not something that she feels is necessary,
“I don’t claim to be the best singer in the world and I’m certainly not the best songwriter in the world, I make a lot of mistakes as a songwriter but I just enjoy playing my own songs, it’s not all that important for me to have a huge mainstream success, in fact I’m quite surprised by how people took to my music on my debut, it’s crazy to think that five million people bought that album but success isn’t something that I focus on or think too much about, honestly I’d be just as happy busking in a Nashville park than playing Madison Square Garden or being on the cover of Rolling Stone. It’s not about success, it’s just about making songs that I enjoy and if all I had was an acoustic guitar then I’d be happy. People can screw themselves up if they obsess over achievements and I’ll make sure that I always remember where I come from and I’ll work hard to make sure that my feet remain firmly on the ground” TRACKLISTING1. Wishing You Would (4:42)
2. All The Beautiful Things (feat. Ryan Williams) (3:57)
3. On The Precipice (6:02)
4. A Million Miles From Home (4:20)
5. I Could Be Your Saving Grace (4:36)
6. Lonely New York Winter, Letters To Nashville (4:47)
7. Tired Of This Careless Love (4:13)
8. Orphan From The South (5:52)
9. You Never Know, What Life Has In Store (5:17)
10. I Don’t Know You Anymore (4:12)
11. Waiting For An Angel (4:02)
PERSONNELEllie-Grace Summers – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, mandolin, lyrics, composition, production
Julian Morello – production, mixing, engineering
Ryan Williams – guest vocals, guitar
Haley Caulfield – album art, photography
