We chatted to Tenille Townes about her debut album out this Friday, and what the road to ‘The Lemonade Stand’ has been like, as she joined us on our Destination Country Happy Hour.
Happy release week! It’s finally the week of your album release, so how are you feeling?
It’s been a long time coming, I could not be more thrilled! It’s so good to see all of your faces, I miss everybody!
It probably feels like forever ago since you were over for Country Music Week.
Country Music Week, yeah that’s right, we almost got to you for C2C (laughs).
Your performance at Country Music Week was such a highlight, it felt like such a tipping point, having your first headline show over here.
Oh, I will never forget that trip as long as I live, I felt like there was something really special that happened at that show, being the first headline show and having people sing along, it felt like we were all hanging out. It was so special to me and it definitely brought things to life around the music of this record. I’m just really looking forward to getting it out, I can’t wait to come back.
What do you hope people take away from this record? You’ve been so thoughtful about the way you’ve put out the album, so what do you hope people come away with on Friday.
I’m so glad that we’ve been on this whole road and adventure together, being able to share different pieces of these songs along the way has been really cool and being able to play and be out on the road was so awesome leading up to this. I really hope people feel like they can just show up and be as they are when they hear this music. I hope they feel reminded that they’re not alone in the things that they’re going through and also to be reminded of the dreams that they had as a kid at the lemonade stand. This record really is that dream, it feels so special to get to share that.
The album has some songs that we’re all very familiar with, like ‘White Horse’ and ‘Where You Are,’ but the production has been changed for the album version. Was that a conscious decision to change them, because they’ve been out for a while now?
You know it was, it was also just sharing the evolution of it. It was always intended to be able to produce these songs full out, but to be able to introduce them first as just the way I play them with my guitar – a lot of the touring was just based around that guitar vocal situation – it was really exciting to be able to introduce the music through ‘Living Room Worktapes’ and then to be able to build around that foundation towards the produced version of the record has been so much fun. I had a blast to get to see the evolution of the song.
Just picking up on the production of the album, it’s a real credit to you and Jay Joyce. We’re finding some real 80s inspired sounds in there, was there a particular touchstone you were aiming for with this?
I love that you said that, it was really cool to get to explore those different sounds and I really think the songs took us there. Jay is so incredible in the way that he really gives the song the space to breathe and become what it’s supposed to be. He’s not afraid to try anything, so I would stand there at my little station in the studio and play the song in the way that I’d play it in my living room. He’d walk over the synth pad and sing in the vocoder on this part, I’d think ‘where are we, are we back in time in the 80s, this is so exciting.’ It has a lot of those elements and also the way the guitar feels a little throwback to me too in places. It’s exciting to see how that all comes together in the blender of this album. Jay is amazing, I am so thankful to have been able to create this body of work with him.
I wanted to speak to you a bit about the sequencing of the album. We often see the singles high up the tracklist, but ‘Somebody’s Daughter’ is quite far down, so how much thought did go into the sequencing of the record?
Thanks for asking, it’s one of my favourite things to be able to talk about when making a record, so much about the adventure and what you want people to feel when they’re listening to these songs. To be honest, where ‘Somebody’s Daughter’ fell, it was there before it became a single, I wanted it to be toward the end of the messaging and to end with ‘The Most Beautiful Things’ was always the plan. For the rest of the sequencing, I knew I wanted ‘When I Meet My Maker’ to be number seven, because that just feels like the right number that that song should be sitting at and starting out with ‘Holding Out For The One’ just felt like the right anthemic statement to be making. The rest of the songs just found their home in the sequence, a lot of that came from Jay’s creativity in linking the sonic pieces together. It was really exciting the first time I listened to the sequencing top to bottom.
‘The Most Beautiful Things’ is one of my favourite tracks on the record, coming out near the beginning of lockdown, it was one of those songs that just stuck with you. What does that song mean to you?
It was so special to get to release that song when we did, that definitely was not the plan. It was going to be the last track on the album and then when we put the album out people would get it. When everything started to happen in the world, it just felt like the right thing to say to lift people’s spirits and remind them of the innocence and wonder in the beautiful things that still exist around us, even in the heaviest of times. I’m really grateful to have put that out then. I wrote it with Gordie Sampson and Josh Kear. Josh had this idea based around a quote that talked about the most beautiful things are felt and not seen. Gordie started playing this beautiful piano melody, I just felt that it was something so special, the kind of song that you’d want at the end of an album, so that was a really special day to write it.
My little cousin Evie, she’s so full of spirit, I love that kid so much, she’s such a special kid, we just went to the park outside of our house one day. I was asking her what she wanted to be when she grew up, what her favourite food was… I was just following her around with my phone, filming her at the park. It was really fun to get to put that together with that song.
One of the songs that also stood out was ‘The Way You Look Tonight,’ which is a little different with the male harmony. Can you talk a little about that song and where the inspiration came from?
That’s Keelan Donovan, who is a dear friend of mine and a ridiculously talented writer and singer. I love his voice. We wrote this song together with Daniel Tashian, we all write together for Big Yellow Dog music and we were upstairs there and Keelan said something like ‘it would be so cool to write a love song that you remind me of a Frank Sinatra song.’ I was like ‘oh yes please, can we please write that today.’ The concept was us essentially about that era of music that you listen to and you’re instantly in this time machine, somehow transporting you to getting off this spiral staircase and walking into this magical time in history that was so magical and romantic. We wanted to write about that feeling of travelling to that place that music can take you to.
‘The Thing That Wrecks You’ was a track you recently had cut by Lady Antebellum. Were you tempted to keep it for ‘The Lemonade Stand’?
Yeah, I love that song, I’ve always loved that song. It was on some version of a shortlist to take into the studio, but it just didn’t feel thematically like the right place on this collection of songs, Iso was just freaking out when it got pitched to Lady Antebellum. I got a work tape of Charles singing it a while ago and I just was crossing all my fingers that this could possibly happen. It was such an exciting thing, I love being a part of the songwriting community here in Nashville and I love getting to write songs with my friends. I couldn’t have imagined that happening in any cooler of a way.
Next week, you’re doing your amazing event ‘Big Hearts for Big Kids’ at the Ryman and there are some incredible names on that line-up, this year feels like another level?
Thanks for asking, I’m still freaking out about the names on the poster! We’ve been doing ‘Big Hearts for Big Kids’ for ten years back in my hometown, in support of our local youth shelter that helps kids aged 12-17 who are struggling with homelessness. That’s what I love about music, the way it can bring people together. It makes my heart so happy to be able to open up this event to everybody come and watch and participate. Anchoring it here in Nashville is so special to me, I look forward to growing and continuing that adventure here. As a first one, it’s so special to have the proceeds supporting The Sunrise House in my hometown and also Girls Scout of Middle Tennesse’s Troops 6000 which is a Girls Scouts troop that helps girls without permanent housing in Nashville, I got to do a version of ‘Somebody’s Daughter’ with them last year that was one of the most special days of my life, those girls have so much courage it’s insane. I am really thankful to be working with them on this as well. I can’t wait for people to watch the show and feel like we’re all kind of together in the same room.
Give us one word you would associate with each song on your record?
Holding Out For The One – Fun
Where You Are – Home
Jersey On The Wall – Questions
Lighthouse – Hope
White Horse – Wildflower
I Kept The Roses – Holding-onto-the-good
When I Meet My Maker – My Great Grandmother
Come As You Are – Showing up and being who you are – dancing in the kitchen
The Way You Look Tonight – Frank Sinatra
Find You – A Bird Headed Toward the Horizon
Somebody’s Daughter – The Lemonade Stand
The Most Beautiful Things – Wonder
