“When we first moved to Nashville I went to visit my good friend’s record store, Grimey’s. As a new artist to the city, I wanted to know what was happening in the local music scene besides the banjos and honky-tonk songs I heard down on Broadway.”
“Grimey’s turned me onto a local band called The Bees (now known as The Silver Seas). As soon as I got in the car and heard the song “Starry Gazey Pie,” I was inspired. I wanted to write melodies like this and write with the people creating melodies like this. After getting to know the singer Daniel Tashian over the years, I finally asked him to work with me on an album…10 years and 10 albums later.
Record stores have always been my place to go to find new music. Now in the world there are so many outlets, but nothing beats conversations with the people working in the stores that know more than we could ever know about new bands, old bands, different trends, and sounds, etc.
I remember the first record that I ever purchased which was Huey Lewis and the News’ Sports. I remember taking it home and it being an event. It was something tangible that made me closer to the artist and gave me something to aspire toward.
The sound from the ending to the intro of that record made me want to be a part of it. Nothing in the world ever sounded like that before—he created a balance between mystery and reality. The liner notes inside, the lyrics in my hands, everything about it made me want to be more involved. That’s what I found from vinyl more than any other medium out there for music. It creates an experience. You don’t put it on and drive around, you can’t put earbuds on and run to it, you put on a record and you sit and you listen all the way through.
When I released my album Decade Fades in 2008, I told my manager that I only wanted to release it on vinyl. She thought I was crazy. But I wanted to listener to have that experience with the music I created. This new album will be my 10th solo album to release and my fourth album put to vinyl. Creating this music with Daniel Tashian has been a dream; we are so much alike that these songs just flowed out of us within a week of writing. It was such a positive record making process, and it seemed only appropriate to title the album The Optimist.”
—Trent Dabbs
Trent Dabbs’ The Optimist is in stores Friday, July 22—on vinyl.
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