Learning from mistakes helps you avoid future ones. But the temptation is always there. Sarah Morris wrote about resisting that temptation in "Falling Over."

"I liked the idea of someone who is tempted to pursue something he or she knows isn't going to be a good idea," she says. "And that person has the wisdom to avoid the temptation."

She understands that change, that behavioral change, is hard to make. It would be so much easier to give into the desire and then face the consequences. Whether it be a a kind of person they don't normally mix well with or something else.

"That final line in the chorus, 'So I won't be coming any closer, I've learned that cliffs are made for falling over' is almost like snapping the rubber band when you're trying to break a habit," she says. 

Pat Watters of the Pat Watters Band remembers when truck driving was the ultimate profession. There's was nothing cooler than those who spent their lives hauling heavy loads down every road in this country. They even made movies about it. Ah, the joys of growing up in the 80s.

The country world has also given the profession a lot of love with songs such as C.W. McCall's “Convoy,” Dave Dudley's “Six Days on the Road,” and Red Sovine's “Phantom 309.” But at some point, for some reason, those songs stopped coming out. Watters wanted to change that.

“I intentionally wanted to write a song in 2017 that reminded listeners of the value these men and women bring as a backbone of our economy,” he says.

The moment of inspiration came as he was scrolling through his Facebook newsfeed. A truck diver friend of his posted a picture of his rearview mirror with the caption, “gettin' loaded.”

“I kinda chuckled and thought, 'I guess there's more than one way to get loaded on a Friday night,'” he says. “The idea stuck with me for a while. I had about half of it written in my head by the time I got around to writing it. The rest of it came pretty easy.”

It was very important to him and the band that "Loaded on a Saturday Night" wouldn't be ignorant of the life of a professional truck driver. So Watters was very conscious of the words and phrases he used. Once the rest of the band worked their magic to bring the song to life it was time to make a video. But what was the best treatment for this song?

When they were throwing ideas around Watters remembered the video they did for a previous song called “I'm Your Buddy.” They had their fans submit photos of them and their friends together and they put those photos in a video. The fans enjoyed seeing their pictures and sharing the video so Watters thought why not use same concept for this song.

“I thought, 'Man, it would just be cool to put the call out for truckers to submit pictures of their rigs and make the whole video a tribute to the profession,” he says.

As they started going through the footage the idea for the opening scene came to Watters. He called a friend of his at country radio, J Brooks from KISS Country in Mason City, Iowa, to cut the DJ line that introduces the song. Once they released the song and video into the world it took off, especially within the trucker community.

“We got 30,000 views in just a few weeks,” he says. “We had a lot of truckers reach out during that time and say they loved the song. It was cool to get their stamp of approval. It made it feel legit.”

But there was one comment that stuck with him. It came from a guy who had been a professional truck driver for over 40 years. He said he seen the truckers' reputation “go from 'knight of the road' to subhuman trash,” but songs like “Loaded on a Saturday Night” made him “damn proud” to be a professional driver.

“The idea that this fun little tune we did could make somebody, who felt the world had forgotten about him and his kind, feel that way meant the world to us,” he says.

Sarah Morris had the bug. Not the songwriting bug that has resulted her successful career, but a nasty bug. The kind that keeps you indoors and where you gradually make a blanket of dirty Kleenex.


It was also the week of the songwriter challenge. This time the song had to be written by the end of the week. And normally that can be done, but Morris' sickness gave her an extra obstacle—writing a song while sick.


“Our prompt that week was 'light/heavy,'” she says. “So I was on a walk and the first verse just came to me and I just kept tugging at the thread.”


She called the song “Helium” and her main inspiration came from her husband and her kids during that time she was sick. Her being ill had put a damper on her spirit, but they stepped in.


“I thought about how grateful I am to have these wonderful people around me to bring some light when I don't have a whole lot of my own,” she says.

Many think a life of music is a life dedicated to road. And for many musicians this is true. But Sarah Morris is a rare breed.

"I'm a very 'settle-down' sort of person. I married my high school sweetheart, and we moved very close to both sets of parents," she says.

She knows, though, that not everyone likes that way of life. She has friends who enjoy moving on after a certain amount of time. It doesn't matter whether it's moving to another place or closing door on a relationship.

"This song is kind of dedicated to the hearts that like to keep on traveling," she says of "Good at Goodbye."

The song's origin is a little more unique than most, too. Morris takes part in a weekly songwriter challenge where they're given a prompt, and a week to write a song based on that prompt. That week their word was 'trunk,' and it set her off on an unknown adventure.

"The first line came to me and I just got curious about where the story might go," she says.

Jake Nelson's first single saved a life. Now it's time to celebrate life with his next single “Whiskey Burns,” an idea that came to him while he was doing a full weekend of shows.

“On the drive I had this melody in my head that had a Zac Brown Band or Alabama vibe to it,” he says, and adds that he was writing in his notebook and bouncing ideas off his girlfriend and friend. “And I was thinking to myself, 'Well, this one is sounding pretty country.'”

The rest of the song came together when he got home. He also got Ben Goeb to lay down some guitar and fiddle, and then brought in Curt Trisko to add some pedal steel.

Then it was time for the video. He enlisted cinematographer Roland Nisben who also shot Nelson's powerful “You're Not Alone” video. Then Nelson took to Facebook looking for a barn close to the cities. He was swarmed with over 100 responses until he was messaged by a fan from Northfield, MN saying she and her husband would love to host the video shoot.

“She sent me some photos of the barn and property, and it was beautiful,” he says. “I scrolled through the photos and then the goats appeared, which were followed by alpacas, cats, and dogs. Basically at that point I was sold. We had to do this video here.”

He drove out to Northfield with Nisben and another friend to meet the couple. They took all of Friday and part of Saturday to clean the barn and get it ready, and then got ready for the shoot. Nelson says the concept is pretty simple.

“We wanted to leave it up to interpretation and just have fun with it,” he says. “Long story short, a few buddies head out to the local barn bar for a casual drink and then the night turns wild.”

The night was a success with about 100 people attending the video shoot, and then staying for the rest of the concert after. And Nelson says the crowd's enthusiastic reaction to the song in the video is pretty much what has been happening at his shows.

It's also featured on TOTAL Country BOB FM's fourth volume of Minnesota Country Salutes with proceeds going to the Military Family Foundation and Tribute to the Troops. It's even getting overseas attention.

“The song has received international airplay over in the UK charting on an independent radios station, too,” he says. “It has only been out for a few months, but seems to quickly be becoming a fan favorite.”

No matter how fast it's spinning a carousel will eventually come to a slow stop. It's also that way with childhood and even some of those friendships, which Breanne Marie and the Front Porch Sinners sing about in their new song, “Carousel.” The song itself, off their new album Wildflowers & Tumbleweeds, was inspired by Marie's daughter Ava and her best friend Maggie.


“The sadness of the minor chords speak to those friendships we have that ended for whatever reason,” she says, pointing out how detailed the song is. “Maybe because we can't be kids forever and have sleepovers anymore, or we just grow apart.”


The video was shot by Michele Truax in a place special to Marie's heart: Chester Bowl Park in Duluth, MN. Many of her childhood memories take place there, and it's where she takes her kids to play today.


“All of the things you see in the video are meant to throw people into their own memories,” she says, adding examples such as friendship necklaces and exploring the outdoors. “We never show their faces in the video because we wanted the viewer to imagine themselves and their own best friend.”


Besides the story it tells, she also loves the 90s feel the video gives off, which is primarily thanks to the black and white segments that feature Ava and Maggie. She even wore a 'vintage' 90s sundress for her performance shots in the park. The video would have been much different, too, but the weather cooperated at the last minute.


“The day of the shoot it was raining,” she says. “About 10 minutes before we got to the park, the skies parted and we had some lovely partly cloudy sunset lighting. Everything was fresh from the rain and the park was completely empty which was perfect.”


The shoot lasted for two hours. They would've gotten more, but the sunset gave them its own deadline. But Marie isn't complaining.
​

“I'm really happy with how the whole video turned out,” she says.

Sarah Morris wasn't working on an album when she started writing the the title track, “Hearts In Need Of Repair.” But she had an epiphany once her pen finished writing the last letter of the song's lyrics. For her, it was the song that would hold everything else together.

“It felt like this perfect umbrella for all the songs I had been writing – songs about the big and small ways our heart can break,” she says. “Saying that your heart is in need of repair is a little like the 'glass-half-full' version of a broken heart.”

As with any song she's ever written her main goal was to be as honest as possible. And while some songwriters may feel its hard to write honest songs, it's Morris' comfort zone.

“I write at my best when it's feeling easy,” she says. “So those are usually the songs that end up sticking around. Anything super hard to write doesn't usually make it to the final cut.”

There were, however, songs that were challenging to arrange. One of those was “Empty Seat.” Morris wrote it in the fall of 2015, but the original arrangement didn't feel right once she and her band got into the studio.

“The arrangement was heavy, and the lyrics are already heavy,” she says. “So it was just too much.”

They went to listen to the original demo that had a very basic chord structure in a major key, and even put the lyrics in a new light. Everyone loved it, but Morris says it was “really hard” to unlearn they'd already spent so much time on.

Then there's the five minute-plus “Confetti.” She says she was very sick when she wrote it and felt at first that it was too “heavy handed.” Then she put out the video of the demo and the Internet took notice.

“There were some listeners who really responded to that song,” she says. “And suddenly I was totally on board!”

As she prepares to put her new album out into the world on November 10th, she hopes people connect to her songs like she connects with her favorites.

“What I love about a songs as a listener is when music makes me feel known – like 'Hey! I feel that way too!' – so I'd love it if people felt that way when they listened,” she says. “But if they listen and think, 'Hey those are some pretty songs!' well, that's wonderful, too!”

For Levi Pelzer, not just any song will do as he works on his upcoming EP. He was looking for something to follow his previous single, “Seeing Someone,” but not just chronologically. He wanted to continue the story.

“'Seeing Someone' is a song about after going through a breakup and not being able to get your ex out of your head, and seeing your ex everywhere you go,” he says. “I wanted my next single to add to the storyline.”

His producer Jason Perri found just what he was looking for in “The One That Got Away.” It was written by Jesse Frasure and Cary Barlowe. Pelzer loved it right away, and the response when he plays it live has been really good, too.

“The song is about admitting your mistakes and not letting your loved be the one that got away,” he says. “It's a very catchy up tempo track that fans are really getting into at our live shows.”

The single is currently available for download and streaming on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you download or stream music. Details regarding the rest of the EP will be revealed as they become available.

After Shalo Lee wrote her upcoming single “One White Crow,” she got really sick. The pain was intense, but this song gave her comfort every day as it played in her head.

“That's never happened before,” she says. “To be comforted by something I created, but there it was.”

Something as inexplainable as that is what compelled her to write the song in the first place. She wanted to send a message through song that invited people to open their minds to things and ideas they may not immediately understand or believe. That's when her co-writer Owen remembered a quote from philosopher William James:

“If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, you mustn't seek to show that no crows are; it is enough if you prove one single crow to be white.”

She says the song pretty much wrote itself after at that point, and she hoped it would help other like it helped her. And that recent health scare isn't the only time she's had to put up a tough fight. She's been through everything from a terrible car wreck to narrowly beating Lyme disease. And she believes her faith in God, the power of prayer, and many other sometimes hard-to-understand ideas helped keep her alive.

“I believe that a combination of all of these things is a large reason that I'm still able to be here,” she says. “And be able to write and perform these songs.”

The song has helped like she'd hoped it would as it's gotten a great reception every time she's performed it. Many fans have even come up to her saying they understood the song's message and revealed how it affected them. With a response like that she decided to submit to the 4th volume of the Minnesota Country Salutes CD put out by TOTAL Country BOB FM. It will be released on Veteran's Day, which is Saturday, November 11th.

“I hope that it helps the veterans and their families,” she says. “As well as anyone else who needs a positive message to get through what they could be going through as it did for me.”

When mutual friends keep telling you need to meet someone it's bound to happen. That's how it all began for country singer-songwriters Vicky Emerson and Sarah Morris. It turns out they had tons in common including the balancing act of motherhood and having a music career.

“We started touring together to save money and also it's more fun to tour with a friend,” says Emerson.

They also started learning each others more recent songs which led to them finding out fans love when they harmonize. Those longs drives also fueled the creative juices, and they took full advantage of it.

“Sarah brings her son's small guitar and she plucks out melodies in the front seat,” Emerson says. “I drive and we write songs together when we are out on the road.”

As they started this duo they needed a name. They chose The Home Fires because 'Home” represents their love for their children and families, and 'Fire' represents their undying passion for music and songwriting.

They are currently in the midst of working on new music, but aren't sure whether it will be an EP or full album. But one song fans can expect to hear is a song called “Beehive,” which they wrote while driving through Wisconsin. Now, what kind of song earns that title?

“The theme is perhaps making a woman mad is not a wise decision,” Emerson says.

Along with Morris' clear melodic voice and Emerson's warm, weathered harmony, both of their personalities shine through as well.

“We are both fairly high energy, joyful people, so that comes across in our stage show,” Morris says. “We like to have fun.”