by Karyn Meuller for The Lowdown
“Drive Me to Nashville’ stirs country-soul, blues and rock into this spicy gumbo.” (Peter Tomkins in RnR Magazine)
Drive Me to Nashville is one of the older songs on the Delta Tales album, written around 2005. It’s one of those songs about a musician who has to choose between his woman and his music. He chooses music in the vain hope that one more attempt at stardom will pay off. To me, this perfectly encapsulates the image of Nashville.
When John signed with Peacock Sunrise Records, label boss Nick Katona really liked the song in its original demo form. John’s producer, Ace Acker, at first passed on the song but reconsidered when another track or two was still needed. He decided to change the musical feel to make it more evocative and did a great job reimagining it for the Delta Tales version. Ace had wanted John to sing it more sweetly, but John balked and kept the more aggressive belting phrasing of the chorus, which I must say, I really like! Also, one of the ‘simpler’ arrangements in terms of production – Drive Me to Nashville is a combination of John’s voice and piano, augmented by Ace’s KORG M3 arranger workstation and background vocals by Ace and Roz Chapman.
This song has been one of my favorites from the moment I heard it. Have a listen and see if you don’t agree with me!
May the sun rise always over you. With love from Karyn.
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