Jeremy Dion urges us all to give a little on his buoyant new single Bend In The Middle — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
With hints of folk, rock and bluegrass, Bend In The Middle — the title track from the award-winning Colorado singer-songwriter and therapist’s upcoming fourth album — finds Dion confidently hitting his stride as it deftly accentuates his sense of infectious optimism.
The track is “the theme song to my life as a therapist,” Dion says. “This song embodies so much of what I talk to clients about on a regular basis — learning how to love the parts of us that don’t seem to fit the mold, that we tried to hide or cut off in our upbringing. Healing and integration are one and the same, and getting our eyes off of what others are doing and what they think about what we are doing is vital.” Or, as he puts it in Bend In The Middle:
“Our problem’s our disconnection
Our well-intended split
But we can tune back in to the goodness again
But loving all the parts that don’t fit
We gotta work it out from the inside
We gotta pull the sheets from the bed
Like everybody else I have the typical fantasy
But then the battle comes, then the battle comes
If we don’t start to bend in the middle.”
The 11-song project, recorded at Cinder Sound Studios in Longmont, CO with engineer Kyle Donovan, sees Dion collaborating with some of Colorado’s finest musicians including Donovan (guitars), John McVey (guitars), Taylor Sims (guitars), Greg Schochet (guitars), Eric Moon (keyboards), Daniel Herman (piano), Christian Teele (percussion), Bradley Morse (bass), Peter Sharpe (mandolin), Enion Pelta-Tiller (fiddle), Beth Wilberger (fiddle) and cellist Courtlyn Carpenter from the band Sturtz.
Due. Oct. 18, Bend In the Middle is Dion’s first new album since 2021’s collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Peter Sharpe (Railsplitters) on Sharpe & Dion. Additional singles include the duet All I See Is You, a breezy, top-of-the-mountain love song that features fellow Denver native Kate Farmer, and Lovin’ Our Friends, with its omnipresent feel of late ’60s Neil Diamond during his Solitary Man era.
A licensed therapist, Dion grew up on John Denver, James Taylor and Paul Simon as the foundation for developing his own unique mix of bluegrass, folk, poetry and rock ’n’ roll. According to his mother, Jeremy came into the world singing. He started with the piano at age seven, and began writing songs after his father gifted him a guitar for his 18th birthday. Educated in the hippie hotbed of progressive idealism at UC Berkeley, he fell in love with the music of Jerry Garcia while teaching himself guitar and pursuing his degree.
With soaring harmonies and riffs reminiscent of Noah Kahan, Benson Boone or John Mayer, Dion has brought his musical dynamism to stages from the Boulder Theater to Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival. Next up is a joyous album-release gig at the Grace Gamm Theatre in Boulder on Oct. 17.
Listen to Bend In The Middle above, pre-save the song HERE, check out more from Jeremy Dion below, and meet him on his website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
