Dean Harlem gently clings to to the memory of a fleeting feeling in his lovely, lovestruck new single Keep You — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
The first preview of the Nashville singer-songwriter’s upcoming sophomore EP Red Oak Hill, Keep You is an Americana anthem to the bittersweet beauty of summertime love, holiday romance and other all-too-brief encounters that live forever in the heart and soul. Armed with his trusty acoustic guitar — and surrounded by swelling keyboards, a headnodding country-rock groove, a twinkling mandolin and swaying southern-soul horns — Harlem shares a poignant tale of missed connection and star-crossed love, voiced in his lightly sandpapered pipes:
“I was standing by my window over Galway Bay
I thought I saw a shadow on the promenade
I went to find you it was getting late
Like the night that brought you to me it took you away
And I don’t mind if I never see you again
‘Cause I remember you dancing to the music of a cover band
And I don’t care if we never cross ways again
Because I can bottle time with all these words and rhymes
And that’s how I’ll keep you.”
“I wrote it during my first tour of Ireland,” he explains. “It’s essentially about the desire to hold onto a fleeting moment and using a song to keep the memory alive.”
He’s accumulated plenty of both. From California to Texas to New England, the New Jersey native son has — in true troubadour fashion — made America his home. Deep-rooted in Americana and classic country and folk, with a picking style that blends Townes Van Zandt and Justin Townes Earle, and with an honest, soulful voice, Harlem has distinguished himself as a young singer-songwriter to watch.
His debut release, 2019’s Asbury Park, paid homage to his New Jersey origins, even as it pointed to new songways and highways ahead as evidenced by his 2022 single World Without Song, a tune that further cemented his songwriting acumen. Keep You was recorded at Wirebird Studios in Madison, Tennessee, and was co-produced by Brett Ryan Stewart and Harlem. The track features Greg Carrillo (electric guitar), Daniel Seymour (bass, mandolin), Chris Benelli (drummer), Luis “Slice” Echeverria (organ) and Brent Moyer (trumpet), with producer Stewart supplying background vocals.
Listen to Keep You and watch Dean Harlem perform the song above, pre-save the track HERE, check out more music from Dean below, and meet up with him on his website, Facebook and Instagram.
