Exclusive Track: Tennessee Stiffs - "Josephine"

It's time, yet again, for another exclusive track and we're proud to have partnered with Tennessee Stiffs to share this great new tune with y'all.

We’re always excited to bring something new to you and that’s what we’re doing today with Tennessee Stiffs, the Austin, Texas-based band who has weathered the waters of the rocky sea that is known as the music industry to thrive as they gear up for their third album Dearly Departed. The album, due next week (May 6, 2022), features this new single ("Josephine") and it’s a wonderful track which finds new ways to delight the ears every time we hear it.

About the song: Named after the acoustic on which singer-guitarist Ethan Lee Sadler wrote the song, "Josephine" is a rootsy, downhome country-gospel tune about not letting the bad times get you down. Midway through, the wheels on the train start churning at a nice clip, and the song shifts to a bluegrass-infused rave up. "Sometimes you're in a rut, and you want to get back on the horse," Sadler says. "'Josephine' is all about that feeling—'There are a lot of bad things happening to us right now, so let's enjoy what we can while we can. Like the song says, 'Get to livin’ while the living is good.'"

For Dearly Departed, their new album, Tennessee Stiffs decided to lean into cautionary tale of rock & roll with an epic, semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story about a beleaguered band in the Americana trenches. The story of a band alternately squealing and sputtering down the interstate on a good-intentions-paved tour to tell and back is a story that many bands have lived as they grow into acts that the world wants to hear. To hear it laid out in this record simply is to hear a cautionary yet compelled to complete tale of a band that can do nothing other than keep moving even as they navigate the dreaded “promises broken” part of the music industry’s double talking pretenders.

Parts of the stories found on Dearly Departed are true — including the fact that just before the release of their sophomore album Thirty Pieces  was to be released, a "label" and PR firm promised the world and then declared bankruptcy — but not before making off with a large sum of the band’s money. After a period of anger and a sense of not wanting to move on, the band forged ahead, crafted Dearly Departed’s 18 tracks and set about releasing the album their own way and on their own terms.

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