PREMIERES AT ROLLING STONE COUNTRY
BEULAH, WHITE’S FIRST SOLO WORK IN NEARLY A DECADE, OUT AUGUST 19 ON SINGLE LOCK RECORDS
—NPR Music
“No matter what genre he tackles, White maintains a careening vocal strain that leaves our lower lips quivering.”—Paste
“What’s So,” the new track from John Paul White’s forthcoming solo album Beulah (out August 19 via Single Lock Records), is premiering with a new music video at Rolling Stone Country. Watch the video HERE and share it via YouTube. “What’s So” can also be streamed via Spotify and Google Play.
Of the song’s subject matter, White explains, “[I] was always taught the value of remembering where you’re from…working hard and being driven was respectable, as long as you didn’t think your successes made you any different than anyone else.” He goes on to describe the video as working “backward chronologically through some of the places I’ve lived. I’d like to think that after all this time, I’m still the kid that grew up on that chicken farm.”
White is currently debuting music from his upcoming record while on tour throughout North America, with newly added shows in Dallas, Austin, Houston, New Orleans and Birmingham; see below for the full itinerary. For tickets and more information please visit johnpaulwhite.com. Preorders of Beulah include an immediate download of “What’s So” and are available at johnpaulwhite.com, iTunes and Amazon.
The highly anticipated release is White’s first solo work in nearly a decade. It was produced by Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes) and White, and recorded in Muscle Shoals at the renowned FAME Studios and at White’s own Single Lock Studios, which he founded and runs with Ben Tanner and Will Trapp. Single Lock has released a number of notable artists including St. Paul And The Broken Bones, Penny & Sparrow’s Let A Lover Drown You—which White produced, Belle Adair, The Bear, Dylan LeBlanc and Donnie Fritts’ Oh My Goodness, which also marked White’s debut as a producer.
Beulah is a diverse collection of swampy southern rock, folk balladry and dark acoustic pop, songs that came unbidden to White, who wasn’t entirely welcoming of them at the time. “Honestly, I tried to avoid them, but then I realized the only way I was going to get rid of them was if I wrote them down. I got my phone out, and I’d sing these little bits of melody, then put it away and move on. Eventually I got to a place where it was a roar in my head, and that pissed me off. Then one day I told my wife, ‘I think I’m going to go write a song.’ She was as surprised as I was. I went and wrote probably eight songs in three days. It was like turning on a faucet.” The title refers to a longtime family nickname and a reference to William Blake’s “place deep in the collective spiritual unconscious.”
One half of the four time Grammy-winning duo The Civil Wars, White’s recent recording collaborations include work with Jason Isbell, Candi Staton, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, among others.
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