New Music Friday: Teagan Stewart & Katie Radecke
This whole week on the blog and on Paradox Jukebox we’ve been featuring Teagan Stewart, the spunky country girl from New Mexico with a raspy, soulful voice and catchy tunes to boot!
On the playlist this week, we’re featuring Teagan’s single, “Country Dealbreaker”.
You may have heard her discuss it with Caitie on the podcast on Wednesday! When she sat down with me, this is what she had to share about this upbeat tune that’s packed with references and a whole lot of sass!
K: Tell me a little bit about what inspired ‘Country Dealbreaker’. What do you want our community of listeners to know about it?
T: I’ve always seemed to find myself in one serious long-term relationship after another, and each time I think, “Oh, this is gonna go somewhere.” Everybody I date knows I moved to Nashville to pursue a career in country music. That’s what I changed my whole life to do, but I had a few boyfriends who were like, “Oh, I hate country.” Which anyone is allowed to do that, but what is normally a preference for people is now a big problem for me. Because if you think everything I do, everything I listen to, the people I’m around, and the whole genre I’m immersed in is stupid, and that’s my biggest choice in life right now, if you think it's dumb then we have a bigger problem here. And that happened a couple times [in my relationships], and I was like, “Oh my God. I cannot date another person who doesn’t like country music.” This is actually a question I have to ask on first dates now because if country’s not their main thing it’s fine, but if they hate it all then I actually can’t date them.
K: That makes sense. If that’s fundamentally a part of your life right now, then that’s a big deal breaker.
T: Yeah! Hence the name. And we were like, “So, how many song references can we put in there?” Which is a very country trope-y thing to do, but I also think everybody seems to prefer to reference artists like Conway Twitty and Hank Williams Jr. all the time. It’s all the same people that nobody listens to or sounds like anymore, which is not genuine. So, we threw in some 90s references, some Jason Aldean, some Rascall Flatts, artists like that. There are 14 references total in the song!
K: I’m familiar with songs and artists but I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a country music fan, so don’t hate me for what I’m about to say…I mean, I didn’t even know who Conway Twitty was until I saw ‘Family Guy’ use some of his performances for their cutaways.
T: Honestly, I don’t think I did either. My parents weren’t really popping in old albums, like, we listened to the radio. So, “Country Dealbreaker” is my version of [the country trope of referencing old songs] and making a point to reference all the songs we’ve actually been listening to over the last ten years, or so. I wanted to make sure I included elements that I like, and I really enjoy how the musicians [on “Country Dealbreaker”] put their spin and their art into it. I wanted to include what I genuinely like about country music, while also making it a fresh, new thing.
“Country Dealbreaker” sounds like summer nights with your girlfriends in your 20s, sifting through what feels like the trash pile of people you’ve been dating, and setting new standards for yourselves! It’s fun and powerful, from start to finish! As a listener who would not describe myself first as a country fan, I had a great time listening to this song and trying to find all the references I knew! I picked up on 12/14, how many could you find?
You’ll be able to catch Teagan play “Country Dealbreaker” along with some of her other great songs at our showcase on March 20th! Get your tickets at the link below!
Sooo, yes, you read the title right. This was as much of a shock for me as it may be for you! I will be handing over the reins for the rest of this week’s New Music Friday blog to our co-founder, Erin McLendon. Read on while I go cry over her kind words…
From Erin:
This week, I decided to take over a tiny portion of Katie’s beloved New Music Friday. Katie [or Kate, as we call her to avoid obvious confusion during meetings] has been a fantastic member of the Music on The Move Studios team for the last few months now and it is FAR beyond time for her to get a moment in the spotlight seeing how she is also an artist, just like Caitie and I are. I promise to give the reins back next week ;) [and also because this particular portion of our blog is her baby and the last time I offered to cover for her, she politely told me to shove off. Ha!]
Katie Radecke’s single “James” from the first few seconds, is not the song you expect. The heart machine beeps at the beginning and steady acoustic guitar give the impression that this is going to be a sad country-like ballad about someone who got hurt, as the lyrics paint a picture of a hospital waiting room with an elderly man sitting next to a walker. As the chorus comes in though, the song pleasantly takes a left turn in to “rock-ballad-turned-introspective” with the very strong lines of “I’ve never been afraid of much but I’ve never died before.” We learn quickly that this is about a man who’s at the end of his life and is now paying for the multitude of mistakes he’s made. Throughout the rest of “James,” you learn why he got himself where he is. This is definitely not a motivational or inspirational song where James suddenly gets redeemed in the end however, it does make you turn in and look at your own life choices so that when you are eventually looking at your “time,” you aren’t looking at it alone.
If you have music you’d like featured on the New Music Friday blog and playlist, submit your music to us in the contact section on our site!
