SONG PREMIERE: Andrew Combs Offers Poignant Take on Radiohead’s “High & Dry”

Photo Credit: Alysse Gafkjen

Though born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Nashville-based singer-songwriter and artist Andrew Combs can’t say for certain he identifies with any one place in particular. Through years of drawing on ethereal and visceral beauty wherever he can find it, his work is more accurately a measured synthesis of a wide array of “places”: the literal and the figurative, those he has been to and others he has yet to see. His newest full-length album, Sundays (out August 19th), is reflective of those varied places that inform Combs’ creative work.

Written on the heels of a mental breakdown Combs had at Christmas of 2020—amid the long, monotonous grind of an ongoing global pandemic—Sundays came together in Nashville in early 2021. In the wake of this debilitating psychological crack-up, Combs turned to the practice of transcendental meditation to find balance and to, in the words of surrealist director David Lynch, “catch the big fish”. Alongside his collaborators, Jordan Lehning and Dominic Billet, Combs would go into the studio every Sunday, the goal being to capture a song he had penned the previous week as he plumbed the depths of his own heart and mind.

Combs also has music on another fascinating project titled 3Sirens Presents: With Love Part 1. Dut out on July 8th, this six-song EP is a mixtape of sorts all in the name of making music and having a good time doing so. Along with Combs, the release features Dylan LeBlancCaitlin Rose and others covering some of their favorite off-the-beaten-path songs from the 80s and 90s. 

Today Glide is excited to offer a premiere of Combs’ rendition of the iconic 1995 Radiohead song “High & Dry” off 3Sirens Presents: With Love Part 1. As one of Radiohead’s more immediate Brit Pop flavored numbers, “High & Dry” lends itself to Combs’ mellow, heartfelt delivery. With its lush acoustic instrumentation, Combs does a fine job of channeling Thom Yorke while letting his own gorgeously vulnerable vocals shine. Anyone who has followed Combs throughout his career knows that he is more than capable of writing songs equally as poignant as “High & Dry,” so the decision to cover it is a natural fit with Combs doing this gorgeous tune full justice.

On choosing to cover this tune, Combs has this to say:

“Radiohead played a HUGE role in my introduction to making music. My highschool years were set to the soundtrack of Kid A and Amnesiac. I actually discovered those records first, then made my way back through their catalog. They were the reason I bought home recording equipment and made songs in my bedroom. I love when an artist/band is curious, and always exploring new territories in terms of sound, production, and song structure. I find Radiohead to be the best example of this in the modern age. High and Dry is an amazing song – it is simple and to the point, but still so lush and beautiful. Those are the hardest songs to write.”

Combs adds some additional thoughts on his new record:

“My new record, entitled Sundays, comes out August 19th, and is a collection of songs written at the beginning of 2021, after I had a nervous breakdown. They reflect this weird and contemplative period in which I was seeking medical help and starting to get really into meditation, as well as the eco and social strain the world had been experiencing with the pandemic, politics, and climate change. We recorded the songs in mono with no echo or reverberation on anything, the result being an intimate look into my own anxious uncertainty and the means in which I chose to get better.”

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