Song Premiere: John Dennis "Santa Fe"

Courtesy: The Press House

 ​John Dennis tells his own story of hope, healing, and rebirth with this summer's Second Wind, the singer-songwriter's sophomore album. The project, set to release July 28th, finds Dennis sharpening his mix of folk, southern soul, and stripped-down country in twelve warm and relatable tracks that are punctuated by swells of pedal steel and swirls of B3 organ. At the center of the sound is Dennis himself: a storyteller who's coming to terms with the tragedy that sent him spiraling into a period of depression and addiction.
 
The Daily Country is proud to premiere one of the tracks from Second Wind entitled "Santa Fe."  Gentle guitar and harmonica introduce you to the delicate, acoustic track where Dennis tells the stirring and detailed story of finding what he needed when he met the gal from Carolina in "Santa Fe." Dennis had this to say of the song,

"Of all the songs on the record, Santa Fe is by far the oldest. I came across it when I was looking through old work tapes on my phone in search of something to fit in with the vision I had. Although it was a rough demo that I'd largely forgotten about, I was immediately teleported back to the place and time when it was written -- a college student in the throes of active alcoholism and heart deep in yet another unhealthy and co-dependent long distance relationship. However, she happened to share my affinity for dreaming up geographical cures to emotional problems and at the time, she had gotten it in her head that if we just packed up and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, all of our problems would be solved and our scars healed. 

Needless to say, we did not follow that through and within a few months, the relationship disintegrated. I still haven't been to Santa Fe (though I hear it's lovely). With that in mind, as far as the song goes, it serves as a perfect metaphor for that idealized, antidotal place we invent on the horizon--like our own little wayward American Shangri-La. Production wise, we chose to preserve the song's raw, stripped folk elements and sort of cop the style of Springsteen's "Nebraska" record--one of [producer] Bryan Clark and I's personal favorites. In retrospect, this approach was fitting considering Bruce Springsteen's style of perfecting those tunes of two young lovers constantly born to run towards something better. That was largely the situation I was in when Santa Fe was written, so it seemed a good addition to a record all about the healing I inevitable had to undertake from ideologies such as that."

Second Wind will release July 28 on Rainfeather Records. Listen to "Santa Fe" below.

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