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Empire State – How a song was saved from oblivion.

The story of Empire State is interesting. Josh Rouse and I met in Nashville as I recall. This must have been fifteen years ago. We had regard for each other’s songwriting. This opened up the door when Josh came to LA some years later. I was living in Burbank at the time. He reached out about trying to write together. My assumption was that he was gathering material for his next album.

He arrived one afternoon with his guitar and a lot of ideas that were sort of percolating. Among them was a soft finger-picked rhythmic piece and the words, “Empire State.”

This was the first time we’d really hung out and Josh was telling me about his upcoming move to Valencia, Spain. Something about that concept was grabbing and romantic. So Josh, himself , became the central character. I felt like this might be a strong contender for Josh to record. Through his character’s eyes, the rain soaked images of New York City are seen, as are the gardens of Spain – the unknown.

We only got so far that day, about halfway. But I had enough to record a quick demo of what we had written, with the intention that we would pick it up in the next week or so. Josh dotted down a few more lines and it all sort of went into a drawer…for at least ten years.

Here we are now, both living in Nashville. When talk of a co-tour came up, the first thought was “Wouldn’t it be great to do some songs together… maybe we could write something…whatever happened to Empire State?” So with a bit of excavation, we unearthed our notes. What we realized was that we had done much of the heavy lifting ages ago. The rest of the song came into focus in an afternoon as the two of us sat around with our guitars at Josh’s. The final touches, the late arriving lyrics, a new bridge section, gave new weight to the whole song. It was worth the long fermentation.

We sang our parts that day, tracked guitars. Ironically, the lead melody that I had always imagined Josh singing became my part. So it’s kind of like me doing Josh, forgetting about it for a decade and then just singing it like one of mine, with Josh adding the great harmonies. Bassist Lex Price and drummer Marc Pisapia reinforced the rhythm and John Mark Painter (Fleming and John) created a grand little symphony of mellotron and brass. I love the pictures that the song evokes. The lyrics, but also the instrumentation seems to transport you to this mythical New York City and our real emotional connections to the place. It’s the first that we’ve written and produced together. All of it was done with friends in Nashville. With any luck, other songs may follow – hopefully within this decade!

- Grant-Lee Phillips 9/7/2018.

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released October 4, 2018
2018, 2018 Yep Roc Records

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Grant-Lee Phillips Nashville, Tennessee

American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

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