Kimmi Bitter’s Old School swaggers (“My Grass Is Blue”) and sways (“I Can’t Unlove You”) with effortless elegance. We recently talked with the San Diego-based singer about her songwriting, Sixties music and the excellent new collection.
“Everything artistic-wise was so fun in the Sixties,” Bitter says. “Fashion was really cool and weird. Cars were cooler colors than today, and there was so much style and creativity. The music has stood the test of time. The Beatles never go out of style.”
Alt-Country Specialty Chart: Describe how the new album took shape.
Kimmi Bitter: I’ve been been working on the album for the past two years with Michael Gurley since we co-wrote our first song “My Grass Is Blue” in 2022. We released “My Grass Is Blue” as a single and it picked up some traction like when Saving Country Music nominated the song as single of the year. We were like, “Oh, wow.” Then “My Grass Is Blue” was nominated for song of the year at my hometown San Diego Music Awards. We said, “Maybe we should make a whole album.”
Tell the story behind ‘I Can’t Unlove You.’
Michael Gurley wrote that one. The album is equal parts songs I wrote on my own and Mike wrote on his own and songs we co-wrote. We just picked the strongest songs. “I Can’t Unlove You” was the last song we added to the album because I wanted a classic ballad. Mike wrote that on his own and was like, “I think this is the ballad the album is missing. It could be really good with your voice.”
That song sounds like Patsy Cline.
Yeah, it definitely has the timeless early Sixties Countrypolitan style that she made really popular. It’s my favorite to sing. “I Can’t Unlove You” was inspired by Patsy’s work with the Jordinaires and anything Elvis and did with the Jordinaires. Such cool production with those background singers. We wanted that song to be styled like that and to make a whole album around the vein of the music we love even though the music sounds outdated.
I was gonna ask you to explain the title Old School, but I think you just did.
(Laughs) Yeah. I wasn’t sure what the album was gonna be called, but then Michael said, “I have this song called “Old School” that I feel like you could (finish) really fast. I worked on it, sent the song back to him and then he sent me what he had. I thought that track should be what the album is called because the songs are our take on the sounds we love from the Sixties. That was the theme of the whole album.
Explain what draws you to that music.
I just love it. I feel like music was peaking in the Sixties and not just country but across all the genres. So good. That decade was special. Maybe it was the perfect combination of technology (developing) but not being so advanced that you still really had to work your craft. Music was a business, but it wasn’t as formulaic as it is now. Music had really good things going for it in the Sixties. The American Dream was alive and well. I wish I grew up listening to that music.
You don’t think you’d be into twenties music if you grew up in the Sixties?
I don’t. I talk to people who grew up in the Sixties and they are like, “That was such a great time. We had such good music.” They still love the music from that time. There’s something going on right now with my generation being nostalgic for a past we didn’t live in. I’ve always had an affinity for throwback sounds and have tried to recreate that with my music even before this album, but it seems very trendy now.
– Brian T. Atkinson
Artist: Josh Langston
Hometown: College Station, Texas
Album: Tastes Like Sin
Release Date: March 29, 2024
Record Label: Dusty Road Records
Artist Website: joshlangstonband.com
On his songwriting roots: “My dad was in the military so we lived a few places, but I’m from College Station, Texas. I’ve been writing songs and making records since I was twenty-one years old. I’ll be forty-three (soon) and Taste Like Sin is the first record I’ve put out in fifteen years. – Josh Langston
- Brian T. Atkinson
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