Anita Hamilton celebrates Love In A Small Town in her romantic new country-rock single and lyric video — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
When you’re young and in love, nothing is impossible. There are no hurdles or obstacles that can’t be overcome. Kamloops country singer Hamilton captures that dreamy, youthful optimism in this sharp, summer-driving single — though she says inspiration came from another side of the romantic tracks.
“Writing this song was in response to a traumatic event that happened during my first serious relationship,” she says. “I was head over heels in love with a college football player who experienced a severe sports injury, ending his football career. Taking months to recover, we worked hard to pay for his medical bills and adjust to the new future that lay in front of us. Love In A Small Town is the story I told myself about how happily ever after can exist, even when it isn’t the future the young lovers envisioned for themselves.”
Love In A Small Town, co-written by Hamilton and Jeff Johnson — who also produced the song — speaks to lesser-known locales that teenagers or high school seniors often want to leave for bigger areas the first chance they get. But Hamilton says the single speaks to the “bumpy, imperfect, and beautiful” roadmap a girl has dreaming of her future. And instead of leaving for somewhere bigger, they end up staying where they were born and raised.
Hamilton, who was born in Vancouver, is backed by Ryan Stead on electric guitar and bass, and Johnson on guitar, with mixing by Billy Decker. Hamilton says she wrote the first draft of the song in 2020, eventually recording it in 2023 in Coldstream, B.C. It was the first song she performed solo at shows — she was learning guitar while writing the track. “Knowing only a few chords at the time, we wrote with three chords and the truth, creating a song that practically anyone can play and relate to,” she says.
The singer also hopes Love In A Small Town resonates with those who, to quote John Mellencamp, were born, live and will probably die in a small town. “There is a shortage of people planning to stay in small towns and work in blue-collar careers,” she says. “Social media and pop culture glorify artificial realities and material things. Life is about more than designer brands and fancy cars; our society is built on the backs of hard-working Canadians.”
Love In A Small Town is the followup to her single Before I Fall. Hamilton has sung the national anthem for the Kamloops NorthPaws baseball club and the B.C. Special Olympics, in addition to gigs at various Vancouver venues — and a recent appearance at Nashville’s legendary Bluebird Cafe.
Watch the lyric video for Love In A Small Town above, hear more from Anita Hamilton below and find her on her website, Facebook and TikTok.
