The daughter of a baby-boomer painter and Italian/Slavic immigrant, Sara Rachele (pronounced ra-kelly) grew up a studio rat and folk child. Working for free cleaning out the cupboards at famed Atlanta acoustic hotspot Eddie’s Attic, she met countless musicians and writers and fell into bands as a side-player before she even knew how to write a song.
After she was swooped up by a music manager in town, she befriended a cast of alt-rockers, eventually moving to New York City to learn life’s lessons and write them out in songs like those before her. The Peach State-bred troubadour now splits time between New York and her farm church in rural Tennessee.
Her 2019 release, Scorpio Moon, features members of soul record makers the Dap-Kings — while Rachele has shared the stage with the likes of rockers and folkies such as Shawn Mullins, Shawn Colvin, Lisa Loeb, and Butch Walker. She recently signed on with Ropeadope Records for her latest album, Heartstrings, which hit shelves in February.
Today Glide is offering an exclusive premiere of the new track “Sad Song,” which Sara and her band recorded out in Joshua Tree live to a 2” tape machine. A few east coasters collected together under the stars in a studio to track live and see what occurred in the day they were in together. The sound captured here is an awareness of each other — the moment — and the genius of a tracking engineer turning knobs and whispering suggestions. Musically, the song carries the kind of dreamy indie pop sound that is sure to make fans of Mazzy Star smile. But Sara diverges and takes things into a darker, more solemn direction as she lets the band’s textured rock soundscapes complement her expansive and poignant vocals and lyrics. True to its name, this definitely feels like a sad song on first listen, but there is also a sense of optimism and hope that transpires in the music and builds throughout the track.
Sara Rachele describes the inspiration behind the song:
“As usual, I’d written an apology song — and felt like it needed a full band to create the record I heard in my head. One of my rock’n’roll mentors grew tired of my antics, which ultimately inspired ‘Sad Song’. It’s about that moment in the middle of the night when you wake up with feelings of recollection. I have lots of dreams that startle me awake, you know. This is a love song to that sensation.”
LISTEN:
