Now/It's: A Song Premiere - "Watercolor Fire" by Kelly Soule Eberle
Whenever anyone wants to collaborate with Now/It’s in any capacity, it’s always an incredibly flattering request. We’ve been incredibly fortunate for the sheer amount of collaboration we’ve been a part of throughout our first year. Without burying the lede much further, one such form of collaboration that we’re incredibly grateful for is when anyone reaches out to Now/It’s to premiere their song.
We believe that it’s a truly beautiful thing - so with that in mind we’re excited to premiere the first single for our 2018 run, “Watercolor Fire” by Kelly Soule Eberle. If you keep up with Now/It’s feature series, then you’ve likely familiarized yourself with Kelly’s journey - leaving Boston to embark on a 7-month excursion of the contiguous United States alongside her sister, that would end with her planting her flag in Nashville.
Shortly after her arrival to our fair city, Kelly penned what would go on to become “Watercolor Fire,” after realizing just how much she ‘was really missing the freedom and spontaneity of the road’ from her fateful 48-state trek. While many may not have endeavored on such a hajj, Eberle's voice help evoke a sense of equal parts innate contentment and irascible yearning. It also helps that vocally, Eberle sways in and out with the same control that someone like Jessie-J might utilize.
Eberle says the song presented it's earliest iteration on a particularly introspective evening in South Dakota - 'We were driving all over the Black Hills region that day and actually got to the Badlands park later than we'd hoped for, so we couldn't stay super long or explore too much, but we made it in time for this spectacular sunset. And I just remember looking at everything and realizing I had never in my life seen anything like that before. It felt like we were on a different planet....The imagery really stuck with me and I have a kind of goofy photo from that night hanging up on my wall - I remember just feeling uncomfortable being "settled" in a place..."
It's hard to do anything other than believe Kelly when she says she felt settled in Nashville, because it obviously hasn't taken her long to plug in. Just take the laundry list of incredibly talented players that helped collaborate (call back!) on "Watercolor Fire" when the crew was laying the track down at Smoakstack - Hadley Kennary (background vocals), Andrew Brown (bass), Jake Finch (drums), Austin Webb (guitar), Zach Torres (guitar), Colin Pastore (pedal steel/producer), and Zack Zink (engineer). If you look at that group five years from now, it's almost certain there'd be some marveling at such a collection of talent on one track.
"Watercolor Fire" is a truly collaborative effort that helps imbue what is/was an apparently poignant moment for Kelly. While it may be some time before Kelly decides to ever take on 48-states once more, but for the time being, there's no doubt that "Watercolor Fire" - which happens to be one of the most dynamic debut singles you'll hear from any artist in 2018 - will live as full and fervent a run as the experience that inspired it.
