Sahara Smith "Are You Lonely?"

Jesse Barnett of Right Arm Resource is our guest blogger this week. He spends his days on the phone with radio stations across the country, advocating for records he believes in. While PJ is on vacation, Jesse talks to you about 5 new songs he thinks radio, and you, will love.

Penultimate [pi-nuhl-tuh-mit] adj: next to the last.

As in, this is the ‘penultimate’ blog post I get to write for PJ.

You’re sad. I know. Let’s not focus on that. Let’s just enjoy the little time we have left together.

I’ll start today’s post with a little primer. T Bone Burnett is one of the most celebrated people in the music business . An artist, a songwriter, a producer… just the first few things that come to mind. He has shepherded many of the most acclaimed projects of the last ten years including the soundtracks to O Brother Where Art Thou, Crazy Heart and Walk The Line. His production work on Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand earned him Grammy statues for Album Of The Year and Record Of The Year in 2009.

So when T Bone Burnett calls Sahara Smith “the best new artist I have heard in many years,” folks should pay attention.

Sahara Smith grew up outside of Austin and started performing when she was just 12 years old. She garnered national attention at the age of 15, coming in second place in a contest for young songwriters for A Prairie Home Companion.

Burnett called in some of his key session players to work on Smith’s Myth Of The Heart and the result is a gorgeous collection of songs that invoke a steamy Texas night. The first single, “The Real Thing” had her cooing in your ear “why don’t we drive all night and wake up in Laredo?”

Um. Ok. Has anyone seen my keys?

Her new single, “Are You Lonely,” is at radio now and it’s another showcase of her fantastic songwriting:

And tonight I'm gonna go downtown
There's a bar on San Jacinto where all the lonely people go to get useless.
And if it's true what they say about you must be true what they say about me too.
God it's getting hard to know what the truth is.
If you forget me in the morning that's alright cause I'll forget you too.

Combine that with her sultry voice asking you if you’re lonely. Well, you get the idea.

Check out the video below to hear the song while Sahara winds her way around downtown Austin:



Read a little more about Jesse in this previous post, and visit his site at Right Arm Resource.