Americana Highways brings you this video premiere of John Howie Jr. & The Rosewood Bluff’s new single “Better Things,” a cover of the Kinks early-Eighties pop gem and the first song since Howie’s 2018 album Not Tonight. “Better Things” features Howie on lead vocal, acoustic and electric guitars; Mark Connor (bass); Nathan Golub (pedal steel); Dave Hartman (drums); Tim Shearer (6-string and 12-string electric guitars) and Alec Ferrell (harmony vocals.)
The video alternates playful animation with shots of the band members as they recorded apart from each other during this past Spring. It was produced by Nathan Golub and features additional video shot by Dario Howie. “Better Days” was recorded at each musician’s home and Clearly Records. The song was mixed by Alec Ferrell and John Howie Jr. and mastered by Dave Harris at Studio B Mastering.
The song builds off of Ray Davies’ melodic Brit-pop splendor and adds the Rosewood Bluff’s honky tonk sublety and underlying kinetic rhythmic power. The band has been playing the song for a few years and it’s something Howie views as topically sound for the times we live in.
“We started playing ‘Better Things’ live in the Spring of 2018 when I was finishing Not Tonight. I wanted to write a song in that style – a positive, optimistic breakup song – but I wasn’t in the frame of mind to do it, so I went to the source, the Kinks song. It provided a good counterpoint to the darkness of the Not Tonight material. The hopefulness in the song is very appropriate for these difficult times as well.” –John Howie Jr.
Watch for a new EP in the coming months. To order the song:
https://johnhowiejr.bandcamp.com/track/better-things-kinks-cover
To find out more, visit John Howie Jr & The Rosewood Bluff on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JohnHowieJrandtheRosewoodBluff/
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