Joe Difazio
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The best country singers exist in the equilibrium between an easy, swaggering exterior and an internal pain so powerful it can’t help but bubble up to the surface. The key is — as in other forms of art — to channel that hurt into something productive before it eats you whole. GracieHorse is a relative newcomer to the country canon, but she’s already proven herself adept at this balancing act.
On her new track, “Hollow Head,” the Los Angeles singer-songwriter’s voice quivers but never breaks, lounging across her rhythm section and a carefree pedal steel even as she delivers a weighty, defiant message to the predatory bullies who have taken advantage of her kindness in the past. “I started writing it fifteen years ago,” she says in a press release, “But I never got the chance to really sit down and work on it as much as I wanted.”
“Hollow Head” follows “What I’m Missing” as the second offering from L.A. Shit, Gracie’s debut release on Wharf Cat Records, coming May 19. Listen to the new track below.