Jack Keyes is a singer-songwriter based in Louisville, Kentucky who earlier this year released his debut full-length album, The Moon is Too High. Full of yearning and hushed emotion, the record presented indie folk at its most candid, channelling the likes of Elliot Smith to show that powerful music need not be loud.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Keyes immediately set to work on new music, finding a newfound willingness to push the boundaries of his style. “I found myself feeling more open to being vulnerable and experimenting both sonically and lyrically,” Keyes says. “It feels freeing to present something authentic because I know the album represents who I am at this point in time.”
A new album, Dissolving in Dusk, rose from the period, and today we’re delighted to share the lead single, ‘Nowhere’. Recorded with Paul Kintzing (of German Error Message) in Nashville, the track is the perfect introduction to Keyes’s blend of intimate and newly experimental styles. Coaxed into life with finger-picked guitar and gentle percussive beat, the sound starts out soft and pensive, wrapped in an easy-going sincerity that holds both melancholy and fondness. But as it develops, other elements emerge, the vocals lifted upon layers of organ as the drums kick into higher rhythm, growing in conviction to match the rising mood in a manner that feels instinctive and free-flowing.
This sense of intuitive rhythm is baked into the song, extending right back to its creation. “I wrote the lyrics to ‘Nowhere’ while going on an evening walk by myself at Shelby Park in Nashville,” Keyes says. “When I came into the studio the next day, the percussion and melody flowed super organically, and we finished the song over the course of the afternoon.” For those familiar with his work, Kintzing’s influence is apparent, the way the parts of the track coalesce, the slow-dawning tenderness.