A rich life has nothing to do with dollars and cents in The Blake Reid Band’s new single and video Penny — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
“I’ve learned that the moments when love trumps money are the ones that I hold on to,” says Calgary singer-songwriter Reid. “When your heart leads, pennies are insignificant. Penny is about silencing the world and finding a way to be lost in a single moment. To navigate life’s storms sometimes we need to crack a bottle of wine, gather good friends, and completely open our hearts.”
Fittingly, Penny is the opening single from The Blake Reid Band’s debut album Another Way Home, set for release in May 2021. The followup to Reid’s 2015 solo album Rust, Another Way Home finds him boldly crafting a new Americana-focused sound with his most trusted collaborators. What results is a blend of roof-raising anthems and heart-wrenching ballads.
Recorded in Nashville, the album is actually the continuation of the No Roads In documentary project, directed by Josh Wong and released in 2017 to international acclaim. Based on the simple premise of capturing the band over a week of recording at an abandoned house in the middle of a thousand acres of prairie wheat fields, the film is a moving exploration of the creative process, and a celebration of the pure thrill that comes from making music with close friends. Another Way Home includes six songs also featured in No Roads In, re-recorded in the studio, but with the same intention.
One of those is the song that gave the documentary its title. Reid says, “I wrote No Roads In as kind of a mission statement that we’re going to do it our way and no one else’s, while still honouring those who came before us. The idea for the song came from a Waylon Jennings comment, ‘Once you’ve tried it everyone else’s way, there’s only one way left to try — and that’s your way.’ We are doing it our own way on this album by not trying to fit into a specific genre, and just writing and recording music that resonates with us.”
Along with Jennings, Reid adds that he drew inspiration from Willie Nelson while writing Another Way Home, specifically after reading about how Willie found his true voice once he decided to leave the Nashville scene and return home to Texas. That unapologetic attitude is the foundation of many of the album’s standout tracks such as Rollin’ Coal, about maintaining your humanity while carving your own path, and Big Train, based on a true story of Reid’s grandfather and his friend, Canadian country music icon Wilf Carter, getting into a standoff with Canadian Pacific Railroad officials during a hunting trip. Penny is the perfect summation of Reid’s new direction — authentic Americana set against a modern approach to classic bluegrass and gospel themes.
Penny will be available Nov. 18 on Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes and other digital retailers and streaming services worldwide. Watch the video above, hear more from Blake Reid below, and keep up with the band via their website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
