Americana Highways brings you this premiere of 3 Pairs of Boots’ “Wash Away the Blues” from their upcoming release Gone South, produced by Andrew Stern, which will be available on Dark Country Music on July 12th. This track will be available on June 28th, though. “Wash Away the Blues” is Laura Arias on vocals, Andrew Stern on guitar, Jay Lane on drums, Dewayne Pate on bass guitar. With anthemic rhythm and southern vocals Gone South is a glorious stunner. “Wash Away the Blues” takes place in the laundromat of life. Here’s what Andrew Stern told us about the song:
AH: What inspired you to write this song? Was there a specific moment that prompted it?
AS: I actually live right across the street from a laundromat. We have a corner house with a lot of windows, so literally every day I see people going to and from there, in all manners of dress – pajamas, bathrobes, etc. It’s entertaining for sure. They’re all bringing their laundry in assorted ways – bags, baskets, carts, etc. And then, they just hang out, talking, smoking, reading, staring into space. So my observations happened over a period of months as I would glance over there from time to time without really intending to look for subject matter. It just subtly crept into my subconscious until it popped up one day, and I was thinking about how they put their life on hold while doing laundry, a sort of time out. And I thought about the conversations they always seemed to be having with others who were there doing the same thing, which led me to thinking about this was sort of laundry therapy, people talking out their issues, whatever they might be. So I tried to tie the two together; the actual act of doing laundry with how it relates to the bigger picture of who these people are, how this might be helping them solve problems, or bring joy into their life, by taking this time out and having time to reflect.
AH: Did the lyrics come first or were you noodling around with the music first?
AS: For me, lyrics always come first. I jot down ideas when they come up, stream of consciousness, just writing down the flow of ideas and possible story lines and variations without really giving it much thought to song structure, hooks, etc. Then I go back and try to flesh it out, form the words and ideas into a more formal song structure, and that’s when I pick up the guitar and start searching for a good musical match. And this process continues for days at a time, until the song is fully formed. Rather than spend hours and hours each day, I will take about 30 to 90 minutes per day to work on it, then leave it alone, as it works better for me to get distance at a certain point, and come back fresh.
AH: The album this song comes from has a lot of breadth and depth to it, a lot of flavors. What about the album makes it special? What do you hope listeners take away from having heard it?
AS: What makes it special to me is that it feels real, heartfelt, with a lot of thought put into each song. We are trying to get stories across that are everyday topics, trying to create music that has depth to it, so that one could keep on discovering new things no matter how times they listen. I paid a lot of attention to making sure that I did not repeat myself, musically or lyrically. For the music, I am always searching for hooks and melodies everywhere, in every piece of the puzzle that goes into creating the song. I am big melody fan, a la The Beatles.
I hope listeners feel this collection of songs inspires them to repeated listenings, makes them feel good, to think, to wonder, to discover new nuances over repeated turns on the turntable, and that it becomes a best friend, just like I’ve done with my favorite albums which I have digested many times over. I hope it’s an album that goes on the list of what one would take to a desert island for the rest of their life, and you can only take 10 albums. I think it’s an album that has a lot of meat to it, a lot of content.
Order here: https://www.3pairsofboots.com/