Sasha Colette and the Magnolias will break out the red bandanas Saturday night for the release of their new Appalachian prairie themed concept EP “Ridin’ Away” at the V Club in Huntington.
Reposted from The Huntington Herald-Dispatch
Things have definitely changed for Sasha Colette over the past year.
The 23-year old singer-songwriter has relocated from Eastern Kentucky to Huntington, and now has a new band backing her as she prepares to release “Ridin’ Away,” the follow-up to 2011’s “Leave It Alone.”
Sasha Colette and the Magnolias will release the prairie-themed “cry for wide open spaces” concept EP “Ridin’ Away” Saturday, January 28 at the V Club in Huntington.
Over the phone, Colette described first life after the move, now living home on the range -- in Huntington.
“I really do like it,” Colette said of moving from Morehead, Kentucky to Huntington in August of last year. “This is the first time I’ve lived in a neighborhood sort of feel. I enjoy having neighbors,” she said laughing. “Me and (lead guitarist) Jeremy (Short) moved up from Kentucky to be closer to the other band members. (Bassist) Chris (Justice) lives in Ashland, and (drummer) Steve (Barker) lives here in Huntington.
“There’s a good circle of musicians here,” Colette continued. “It’s nice to have friends who play music, everybody’s always working on their new projects or whatever. It just keeps me encouraged, the circle of friends. That’s been one of my favorite things about Huntington, is I just feel like I fit in.”
It’s one thing to hear about fitting into a new town, but it’s surprising to hear Colette talk of fitting into her own band. That’s just the change that she thinks stands out since releasing “Leave It Alone” last year.
“I’ve been playing with this band for about a year now, and it’s been really cool. They’ve given me a new form of confidence as far as how as I perform. They’ve helped me improve my vocal performance so much more,” Colette, already known for her soulful and powerful voice, admitted.
“Ridin’ Away” has a distinctly more country music sound than the mix of folk and rock found on “Leave It Alone,” something that’s happened naturally as Colette and her new band mates have congealed into a unit.
“Someone like Ryan Adams, what he does, you can’t place it exactly,” Colette said of the sound on the new record. “This album, not only does it have a nice concept throughout, but it also introduces the band. These guys, they weren’t on the first album. I never really had a particularly stable band before. I didn’t have a specific direction then because I didn’t have anybody steady in my life, as far as the music goes. But this album, the reason it sounds so good and so fitting is, we’re used to each other, and we’re all here to stay in this thing.”
Colette said capturing the sound the new lineup has been working on at Aaron Fisher’s 101 Productions in Sissonville is something she’s proud of.
“Man, the album, I love the sound it has because this is what we do at live shows. The other album, it was difficult to translate that into a live show, it was kind of misleading occasionally. But this album, there’s a lot of truth to it, whether it be from the lyrics, or the sound of the album to the sound of the live show.”
It’s the truth found in her lyrics (which Colette dutifully cites as examples) and on one song in particular on “Ridin’ Away,” that Colette is maybe most excited about.
“This album has a song on it called “Leroy,” and lyrically I am more proud of that song than any song I’ve ever written because the wordplay and just the story behind it, and the truth behind it, the offensive truth. It embodies what, um, what’s kind of going on in some people’s lives. “A simple enough life/giving up your daddy’s name to marry Leroy,” you know?”
The inspiration for one song on “Ridin’ Away” came from others finding out about Colette’s life as a “professional camper” after a Charleston Gazette article on her in early 2011 described her very real nomadic life at the time.
“Like a tumbleweed I been out a roamin’/now my secret’s out and everybody knows,” Colette said, reciting the lyrics from “Red Bandana.”“When I read [the article] I was like ‘Oh, they put that in the paper!’” Colette said laughing hard. “Some people don’t know how to react to that sort of thing, they think you’re a ruffian or something.
“Red Bandana” is kind of a cry for some wide open spaces. But people are diggin’ the idea of like a prairie-related album.”
So the pack-up-and-go themes explored on “Ridin’ Away,” are not so far divorced from reality for Colette. “You know,” she said, sighing, and thinking about her life, where she’s been and still may go, “I’m still young, I’m twenty-three, and maybe it’ll never leave, but I have a real big urge to just get up and go all the time. I want to question tomorrow.”
But for now, Colette is focused only on her band and changing other people’s lives, with her songs.
“I’m really excited to have the CD to introduce the band to the fans. People really love our sound so much, they want to take it home with them. It can be a life-altering experience, if you listen hard enough.”
IF YOU GO:
Sasha Colette and the Magnolias CD release
With Tyler Childers, The Switchmen
Where: The V Club, 741 6th Ave., Huntington
When: Saturday, January 28
Time: 10:30 p.m.
Cost: $8 (includes a copy of “Ridin’ Away”)
Online: www.reverbnation.com/sashacolette, www.vclublive.com
Related: Colette piece in The Ashland Daily Independent
Artwork by Jimbo Valentine/Amalgam Unlimited
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