Song of the Day: Katie Cole’s “Graceland”

Cole Graceland

Singer-songwriter Katie Cole takes us to church in her new single, “Graceland.” Cole, who was born in Australia but now lives in Nashville, was inspired to write the song with co-writer Sam Brooker after a visit to Elvis Presley’s home.

“Graceland” is in the voice of someone who has wronged their lover. Cole’s wonderful voice gives an emotional depth to the song, while sometimes a choir backs her up. Check it out.

It’s a long road I’m on to get me here,
When all the lights have gone out but the stars;
So I’ll follow them, wherever they lead me dear,
Far away, far away from your heart.

“Graceland” is from Katie Cole’s EP, Things That Break, Pt. 1. We hope to hear more from her in the near future.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Lisa Marie Presley Performs in Elvis’s Jungle Room

    Lisa Marie Presley Graceland

    Lisa Marie Presley recently performed for the first time in her childhood home, Graceland. As part of an exclusive for Ram Country on Yahoo Music, Presley performed in Elvis Presley’s famous Jungle Room, where Elvis recorded music for some of his last albums.

    In this video, Lisa Marie Presley sings “Weary” from her 2012 album Storm & Grace in the Jungle Room while her husband, Michael Lockwood plays the oldest guitar from Elvis Presley Enterprises’ collection. Elvis used the guitar several times in the movies, including in Loving You (1957), King Creole (1958), and Jailhouse Rock (1957). [July 2014 Update: Unfortunately, the videos of Lisa Marie Presley recording in the Jungle Room are no longer available. So we have replaced the missing video with a video of her discussing her return to Memphis and playing in the Jungle Room, followed by a video of her performing “Weary” at WFUV.]

    Below is Lisa Marie Presley performing “Weary” at the studios of radio station WFUV in New York.

    What song would you like to hear Lisa Marie Presley sing at Graceland? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Graceland: Happy Birthday Willie Nelson!

    Graceland We celebrate the birthday of Willie Nelson’s, who was born during the final minutes of April 29, 1933 (so that his birthday is sometimes reported as April 30) in Abbott, Texas. One of my favorite Willie Nelson CDs is Across the Borderline,  which was produced by Don Was. The CD was released in 1993, during a traumatic period in Nelson’s life, a few years after his troubles with the IRS had come to a head. AllMusic rates the album highly and refers to it as an album surveying two decades of popular music by a wide variety of music writers. There are a number of guests on the CD, including Bob Dylan singing with Nelson on “Heartland,” a song the two legends wrote together. Despite the variety, though, there is a cohesion in the CD as the theme of loss weaves throughout the songs.

    Every song on the album is excellent, but standouts include the cover of two Paul Simon songs, “American Tune” and “Graceland.” I cannot find an article about the background behind “Graceland” (so don’t quote me), but I recall Paul Simon saying in an interview that he had always wanted Nelson to sing “Graceland” ever since he wrote it. Simon, who ended up playing guitar and producing the Nelson version, had to persuade Nelson to record “Graceland.” Nelson finally agreed as he eventually saw the meaning underlying the song.

    While I love Paul Simon’s version, Nelson’s voice really works well on the song, as he develops the aching notes of loss and sadness throughout the tune. When I hear Simon’s version, I think of the lyrics about the human trampoline bouncing into Graceland. But in Nelson’s version, I learned to see the loss in lines such as, “She comes back to tell me she’s gone/ As if I didn’t know that. . . As if I’d never noticed / The way she brushed her hair from her forehead.”

    Throughout the album Across the Borderline and its themes surrounding life’s pain and wreckage, there are moments of hope. The album ends with “Still is Still Moving to Me,” a Nelson original that invokes Eastern and taoist beliefs in keeping on and accepting. Similarly, the song “Graceland” ends with hope out of the loss: “Maybe I’ve a reason to believe / We all will be received / In Graceland.”

    The recording of the song on Across the Borderline is one of those rare moments when two musical geniuses are able to take what was already an outstanding song and make it powerfully relevant to a new singer. On the album, Nelson does all the singing, but in this version below, the two come together for a live performance to sing “Graceland” together. It is a a nice way to celebrate Nelson’s birthday today.

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