Americana Highways brings you this song premiere from John Salaway’s forthcoming album Americana Dreams, due out on October 25. “You better Believe” is John Salaway on drums, bass, acoustic guitars, vocals, and percussion; Kelsey Steele on co-lead vocals, with lead guitar and dobro by Stuart Montez.
Salaway really shows off his knack at blending groovy rhythms with Americana twang on Americana Dreams. Years in the production studio have really honed his ear. This sample from the album, “You Better Believe,” will have you dancing around the room lickety split!
This is the only song on the album that isn’t new. Kyle Daniel and I wrote this one quite a few years ago. The title is a cliche’ that we’ve all heard but I wanted there to be a spiritual subtext to it about being a believer or believing in something deeper and more profound than just our daily human routines.
“You Better Believe” is talking to someone who’s in a rough place. Someone who’s being closed-minded and who thinks they know it all… it’s pleading with them to just stop and listen for a minute. You better believe that there’s much more to life than what you’re going through. You better believe that there’s something worth believing in… life is so much more enjoyable when you have something to believe in!
It was probably, mostly the bluesy side of Led Zeppelin & The Allman Brothers who inspired us on this one but people usually hear some Beatles influence in my work so that may be the case here too.
The music, guitar riffs, and title hook came to me in a flash. I got together with Kyle to write the rest of the lyrics and melody and it all came to us so fast. It was one of those songs that felt like it wrote itself. My debut solo album The Song in the Air is about this concept where it feels like songs are already flowing in the atmosphere and songwriters have to tune in, channel them, pluck them out of the air and bring them down to earth. It’s an amazing blessing when songs come to us so fluently and organically that it feels like magic sometimes. 🙂 — John Salaway
Order the album here: https://www.johnsalaway.com