The Magnolia Janes – “The Sun in My Backyard”
Americana Highways brings you this video premiere of The Magnolia Janes’ song “The Sun in My Backyard” from their forthcoming album The Light Years, which is scheduled to be released on July 12 via Be A Jane Records. The Light Years was produced and mixed by Ashley Riley & Sarah Bonsignore, and mastered by James Treichler at Wave Upon Wave.
“The Sun in my Backyard” was co-written by Sarah Bonsignore and Bill DeLuigi, and is Sarah Bonsignore on vocals and piano; Ashley Riley on vocals and acoustic guitar; and Will Kimbrough on vocals and electric guitar.
Americana Highways had a chance to chat with Sarah Bonsignore, a native of South Africa, and Ashley Riley, hailing from the American heartland, aka The Magnolia Janes. The video premiere appears just beneath the interview.
Americana Highways: Can you tell us what inspired you to write this song and what it’s about?
Sarah: This song was co-written with Bill DiLuigi, and we were talking about our backyards and how we love to sit and listen to the birds and watch the sun hitting the green. No matter how far away we roam, nothing beats home. We wrote this as a reminder to ourselves to be grateful for the simple things, and to always try to look for the beauty where we are.
AH: What kind of a vibe were you going for on this song? How does the final version differ from what you imagined it might be before you went into the studio?
Ashley: When we first started working on our parts for this song, the harmonies seemed to make it magical. We knew we wanted to really feature that on the track because on a lot of the other songs on the album we switch back and forth on the lead. “The Sun in my Backyard” became this moment where we really honed in on our voices the whole way through. We love performing it live, and right before we recorded this song, we played it at a special “songwriters in the round” house concert for Climate Music, and Will Kimbrough (Willie Sugarcapps, DADDY, and Emmylou Harris’ Red Dirt Boys) was on the round as well. During soundcheck, we were playing this song, and he started adding these gorgeous guitar swells and a third harmony. I think we knew that night that we wanted him to play on the song, but instead we both wound up buying the exact same pedalboard he had used on reverb on the exact same day without telling each other! It was about three days later that I was like, “Sarah, I can’t play like Will Kimbrough. I think we need to ask Will if he will play on our song,” and luckily he agreed. So it’s got beautiful guitar swells and third harmony thanks to Will Kimbrough.
AH: What do you hope listeners get from hearing the song?
Sarah: We hope that people will find inspiration from the song, and that it will transport them to a place that they love.
Ashley: We also hope that it will inspire them to listen to our whole album and add the songs to all of their playlists. 😉
AH: What kind of reaction has the song gotten from audiences when you’ve played it live?
Sarah: We have played it live at a few house concerts and rounds in Nashville and recently at Folk Alliance in North Carolina, and many have told us they love this song. The words are simple, but also universal, and perhaps that is why so many people connect with the music. We love to invite people to sing along on the oohs.
AH: How does this song fit in among the others on the album? How is it similar and/or how does it stand out as different?
Ashley: We think that all of the songs have a hopeful theme, but “The Sun in my Backyard” feels like a tranquil respite and an invitation to set your worries aside. I personally love the first line of the song where it says, “There’s something about a sky of summer stars,” because it feels like, yeah, that’s wonderful, but what I have right here is enough. My other favorite line in the song is, “I searched the world for beauty, but I was looking way too hard.” I guess my favorite lines are the first and last, but they really cut right to the point. I think this song stands out because of the imagery it creates and, at the same time, the simplicity.
Sarah: I love that the song is about the places that make a home, but also that they have been here for millennia and somehow we all get to be the stewards of the beauty that is all around us, constantly changing through the seasons. My backyard in Tennessee reminds me so much of my home in South Africa, and sometimes when I close my eyes, I feel like I’m a little girl again listening to the sounds of nature in my tree house. I guess I took it all for granted until I moved to New York City and lived in a concrete jungle for many years, which I also loved.
AH: How did the video come together?
Ashley: We filmed this in Illinois on one of the windiest days in April. We have a way of picking the best weather days for our adventures! Basically, we set up a tripod and frolicked in my sister’s (thanks, Wendy) and parents’ backyard. They are neighbors, so we originally intended to use my parents’ yard, but the sun in their backyard was a little too hot, and my sister had some shade and a tire swing. We tried to get creative with a disco ball, but the light was against us, so we decided to recruit my mom, Cindy, to film us on my aunt’s porch instead. (thanks, Nancy). The theme of the song is all about home, so we felt like it would be special to film it ourselves and in a backyard and let nature do the talking for us.
AH: What’s on the horizon for The Magnolia Janes?
Sarah: Our debut album drops on July 12th, and we will be doing a house concert in Nashville that night for our wonderful Kickstarter supporters, as well as an album release show the following week at The Commodore Grille in Nashville. We also plan to do some touring around the country over the next year, and hopefully in Europe and Canada, too. We plan to record more music videos for the songs on our album, “The Light Years,” and maybe release some of them in a stripped-back, acoustic style.
This video was created by Sarah Bonsignore, Ashley Riley, and Cindy David. With very gentle musical support, the Magnolia Janes sing in easy, glorious harmony: “there’s nothing like the sun in my back yard.” This duo is onto something sonically magical. The video is easy, slightly blurred footage that looks like some old analogue film and is quite riveting to watch. Coming from their widespread backgrounds of South African and rural Illinois, Sarah and Ashley have been able to focus us all on universal common ground: the feeling of being home. And they make it seem like the easiest thing of all.
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