Gill Landry is sometimes known by the stage name of Frank Lemon and is perhaps best known as a former member of Old Crow Medicine Show and a founding member of The Kitchen Syncopators. Hailing from Lake Charles, LA, the singer-songwriter and guitarist has enjoyed a flourishing career as a solo artist in recent years. In October Landry released his third solo effort Love Rides A Dark Horse. In a recent feature on Landry, Glide’s Trevor Christian described the album:
“After producing a handful of solid albums both as a solo artist and with Old Crow Medicine Show before leaving the group, Landry came out of nowhere with an album that sounds a lot different than anything else he’s produced. It’s a melancholy record that builds to an incredible track that leaves behind the type of hard-won elation and inspiration that only cheering an underdog to victory truly can.
Calling Love Rides A Dark Horse a breakup record is both accurate and inadequate. Drawing from the pain one might expect to experience from a failed engagement, Landry writes from the perspective of someone questioning the factors that ended his relationship on “Berlin.” The song also seems to question whether he’ll ever have the ability to truly understand what exactly happened or even whether a genuine connection even existed. From there the analysis only deepens. Landry spends most of the album breaking up with his prior notion of love and relationships, calling into question whether anything real can emerge from the expectations and pressure associated with the typical courtship.”
In his own words, Landry says Love Rides A Dark Horse “is not a blues album, though if someone asked me what kind of music I write, I’d like to say blues. Blues singing is an exorcism of the blues itself, and that’s how I relate to what I write. This album for me is an attempt to shine a light on my various traps and sorrows as well as explore their emotional depths. I try to purge hard times in song and can only hope that through sharing these glimpses of hard-to-pin-down emotions, others may feel less alone. So that’s how I approach songwriting—hopefully not wasting anyone’s time, and contributing meaningfully to the conversation within the songs of man.”
Today Glide is excited to premiere a special version of Landry’s song “The Woman You Are”. Landry’s lonesome baritone takes the spotlight as he strums, sings, and plays his harp while surrounded by wine barrels at New York’s City Winery. Landry’s distinct vocal style, vivid lyrical narrative, and mournful tone brings to mind the likes of Jay Farrar and Townes Van Zandt. Recorded on October 3rd, the performance is part of the One On One Cellar Sessions and features Landry performing three songs solo and acoustic. “The Woman You Are” is the kind of song that immediately alerts the listener to Landry’s potent talent as an Americana troubadour.
Reflecting on inspiration behind the song, which Glide’s Trevor Christian recently described as “the most gratifying love song I’ve ever had the pleasure to hear,” Landry has this to say:
“The inspiration for ‘The Woman You Are’ is pretty straight forward. On one level it’s about a lover/partner in crime who you love as they are and for who they are un-manipulated and real. On the second level it’s about escaping the safe, white washed, selfie-stick, homogenized, consumer landscape of mediocrity that’s sucking the soul out of my favorite cities with that person.
The version from the Cellar Sessions is solo and acoustic whereas the album version is with a band arrangement, but my approach to the song is the same either way; if you’re gonna sing it, mean it.”
WATCH:
Gill Landry’s Love Rides A Dark Horse is out now on ATO Records. For more music and info visit gilllandrymusic.com.
