Adrienne Nye - "Lonely Days"

This single from Adrienne Nye, “Lonely Days”, reminds me of my soft spot for an Emmylou Harris song.

First, on this video: Nye has the credit for producing and editing it herself, which is an impressive feat.

While she wrote the song solo, the production comes from JP Maurice — who is a talented artist in his own right.

Okay, now bear with me.

What do we have here in “Lonely Days?” First, insistent, pentatonic melodies. Then, spacious folk production. And of course, other droning sounds wrapped into the arrangement.

All of these characteristics also show up in a certain song I love.

Honestly, when I dropped out of music university I was jealous of the cool stuff that kept happening.

I got into a bit of trouble for hanging around too long and trying to participate. (You might call those my “Lonely Days”!)

However, I also just plain hung out at the campus concerts and events — that’s totally fine.

There was one ensemble that covered the coolest repertoire. Pop and alternative songs, not just the jazz big band arrangements we studied so deeply.

And one day in the early 2010s, that ensemble blew me away with a cover of an already-great Emmylou Harris song.

The song? “Deeper Well”.

Sure, Adrienne Nye’s song is brighter than that — but they truck along at similar tempos and drill themselves into your bones.

And at the end of this song, the violin’s riffing and the rich voices call me back to the folk festival stages I used to hit.

The home that I’m called to when I hear this song is the feeling that I can learn anything. That the music world is mine for the taking.

That’s the feeling I get from Nye right now.

Choose your streaming platform here, and listen to “Lonely Days” by Adrienne Nye.

The artist maintains the link above. If the link broke, please contact Rhythm Changes, and thank you for the heads-up.