Andrew Crawford & Brandi Colt: In This Dirt
The first few lines of any song are make or break. You either get the audience’s attention of you don’t. It's hard to ignore any song that starts with:
“He’s been on this farm alone for 13 years / Since the angels took his wife
Just turned 82, heading through The sunset years of life
We tried to convince him that he needs to sell it all and move to town / But every time we bring it up
He grabs his cane and reaches for the ground
This is another great open from the South Carolina, Red Clay, duet power couple of Andrew Crawford and Brandi Colt. Their new single “In this Dirt” will be the first salvo, fired for effect, for their upcoming duet album aptly titled CrawfordColt.
This song hits you with all the feels and all at once. From the fiddle and banjo intro setting the somber tone to Andrew’s clean baritone vocals which are complemented and contrasted with Brandi’s graceful mezzo-soprano tones. It makes you feel for the central figure’s plight. It may even remind you of someone you know, which brings it even closer to the heart.
Something that I enjoyed about this piece is that the song's lyrics could have gone in a more common direction with ordinary lyrical elements. But, instead, they chose to avoid some of these more stereotypical references and directions. Which, having followed some of their previous work – both solo & as a group – is demonstrating an increasing depth in their songwriting abilities.
Musically, the song rides the border between traditional country and bluegrass through the use of acoustic instrumentation like fiddle, banjo, guitar, standup bass & mandolin as well as the layered duet vocals from Brandi and Andrew.
This piece was written by Brandi Colt, Andrew Crawford and Jeff McClellan. Jeff McClellan is a name you may recognize from his bluegrass hits “Rainy Day Blues,” “15th of October” and “Modern Day Jezebel.”
Andrew and Brandi also brought on some top notch talent in the Country and Bluegrass communities to help them record this single. Tim Crouch, who played fiddle on this song, has played with the likes of Dolly Parton and George Jones. Aaron Ramsey played bass and mandolin, and is best known from his work with Mountain Heart and Volume Five. The song was released on November 16th and is available through Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora, iTunes, Tidal, deezer, Napster & Amazon Music.
Find out more about Brandi Colt and Andrew Crawford below:
