The greatest pleasure for us at Lonesome Highway is discovering new artists, previously unknown to us, who are creating outstanding art. The find of 2024, for this writer, is Liv Greene, a young Nashville-based artist. On her recently released sophomore album, DEEP FEELER, recorded at Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ Woodland Studios in East Nashville, Greene tackles personal emotional wreckage head-on across several strikingly evocative songs. Self-produced and with Gillian and David’s ‘go-to’ man Matt Andrews as engineer, Greene’s vocals perfectly reflect the songs’ theme, supported by understated instrumentation that complements and enhances the songs rather than dominating them. Making music that blends folk and country elements, DEEP FEELER is likely to enhance Greene’s already lofty reputation as one of the standout emerging artists in the burgeoning East Nashville music community.
You're living in Nashville now, having been raised in Washington, D.C.
Yes, I grew up in Washington, D.C., moved to Boston for college, and found my way to Nashville about three years ago.
Why Nashville?
Growing up, a lot of my New England folk scene was either in Boston or Brooklyn, and a lot of my mentors had moved to Nashville. I knew Nashville was the place to go for me from a young age; it's relatively affordable and a beautiful place to be, a great community and the chance to collaborate with people in that community.
Did you get a grounding in roots music growing up?
Neither of my parents are musicians, but they were huge music lovers and Americana fans. They would go to shows and bring home the CDs of the headline acts and the support acts, so there was lots of great Americana music from the late 1990s and early 2000s, which was the soundtrack of my childhood. As a pre-teen, I think I rebelled against my parent's music, but I was quick to circle back to those roots, and some of the first songs I learned on the guitar were Patty Griffin songs because the strumming patterns were so distinct and easy to pick up rheumatically.
Was songwriting a means of expressing yourself at an early age?
Yes, I think when I was younger, it was a way to express myself, but more recently, it has become more confessional and more of a processing tool. I started writing songs when I was ten, and when I started playing the guitar at eleven or twelve, it really took off from there.
You attended Catholic schools prior to boarding in an arts school in Northern Michigan. Was that switch from a conservative education to a more liberal one a factor in your decision to pursue a career in music?
Totally. I went to a catholic elementary school for most of my childhood and for high school, an all-girls catholic school. I then ended up going to an art school for my senior year in Michigan; that was such a formative time, the first time being around 'out' queer people, which was important for my development to be in a place that was accepting and supportive. It was a big culture shock because I could only play guitar at my catholic school through music ministry, basically the mass parts and the songs for communion. That year at art school was liberating and formative, and it helped me decide that music was something I wanted to pursue as a career.
Getting signed to Free Dirt Records at an early age must have been fulfilling for you.
It was. I just started working with them on the DEEP FEELER record. I had been a fan of the label since high school; I remember finding Rachel Baiman's debut record on Free Dirt. They were on my radar because of the many great projects that they were putting out. They reached out to me two years ago and asked if I had anything that I was sitting on. It worked out from there; it's really cool that they are a hometown record label from Washington, D.C., where I grew up, and one of their slogans is 'making a living, not a killing.'
You released your debut album, EVERY BRIGHT PENNY, just as Covid changed the world.
Yes, early May 2020. Not the best time. I had just graduated from college, and that record was like a time capsule of my New England folk scene and coming of age as a musician. It didn't get out as widely as I had hoped, but I'm grateful for how things have worked out. I took the next few years out to incubate more as a writer. During the lockdown, my restaurant job was shuttered, and with a pandemic unemployment payment, I had more money than ever, and I just sat and wrote songs. Not everybody had the same experience during Covid, but for me, it was an incubator for personal growth and self-discovery and resulted in this record.
You hired the legendary Matt Andrews to engineer the new album, DEEP FEELER. What drew you to him?
I grew up listening to Gillian Welch and the O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? soundtrack. Matt Andrews, one of the engineers on that record, was Gillian and David Rawlings' main guy. I had been a fan of how intimate those recordings feel, and that was the main draw to Andrew; he's brilliant; he's like a filmmaker in the way that he can create an intimate picture; you feel that you are in the room with the artist. I learned a lot about performing from those Gillian Welch and David Rawlings recordings when I was in high school and college; it feels like a master class listening to them, and so much of that comes down to the engineering. He's a two-time Grammy winner, and I never dreamed I would get to work with someone like that.
The icing on the cake was recording the album at Woodland Studios, which few people get to do these days.
It is really just Matt, Gillian and Dave's space. I got really lucky; my friend Jack Schneider introduced me to Matt Andrews. When the roof was blown off Woodland Studios during the tornado, Studio A was the part that was affected. Matt's room, off to the side of Studio A, became a storage area filled with organs, amps and different gear from the main studio while they were fixing the roof. Because of that, the studio wasn't technically operational, and there was this long period of time when Matt wasn't too busy because the roof was being repaired. We tracked the record surrounded by all of the gear from Studio A, and that downtime during the construction work made the recording possible.
The production, which you took on yourself, is superb, very understated and anything but overcooked.
I credit a lot of it to watching Isa Burke from the band Lula Wiles; she now plays with Aoife O Donovan and The Mountain Goats. She produced my first record, EVERY BRIGHT PENNY. She is a few years older than me and was like a big sister and mentor to me in the New England folk scene. Watching her produce my first record was like watching your sister jump off a diving board; you feel you can do it too. She invited me into her process of producing that record, hiring the right people to work with and letting the songs lead the production. On this new record, when I would get weary, Matt helped co-produce a couple of the songs, helped me get objectivity back, and was patient with me when things did not land as I expected. The sparseness on the record can be blamed on the tape (laughs); it wasn't like we could record a bunch of stuff and comp it; the recordings were happening live, so it was a pretty intense and hyper-focused practice to add an instrument to a track because the person would have to pretty much nail it. It was really a practice in restraint recording to tape, and all those things together led to being voice forward, and Matt is great with having voice and guitar at the centre of everything.
You had a host of household names in the studio, including Dominic Billett, Sarah Jarosz, Mike Robinson, Jack Schneider, Elise Leavy, Emily Leavy, Christian Sedelmyer, Sean Szoch, Hazel Royer and Jordan Tice. Were they your choices?
They were ninety-nine per cent of my choices, but I went to Matt for his thoughts. My friend Jack Sneider was co-executive producer and he wrapped my head around the logistics and budgeting for the recording, I get overwhelmed and scared and become paralysed and he was the train that helped to keep me on track.
Over what period were the songs recorded?
The project did go on and on. We started in May 2022 and wrapped up in August 2023. It was done in little bursts because I had to save up to afford to get back into the studio and get the musicians on board.
Does the album title, DEEP FEELER, accurately describe Liv Greene?
Definitely, it's a little anthem of sensitivity.
There is a lot of hardship and break up on the record. Is it all autobiographical?
For the most part, there are one or two songs that I borrowed from other people, but otherwise, it is about my own life from age twenty-one to twenty-four. I'm glad to have written a breakup album. They get a lot of flak, but they are some of my absolute favourite records of recent years, like Courtney Marie Andrews' OLD FLOWERS.
Is it easier for you to write about those issues than discuss them?
Totally, when I'm in a good writing place, it is easier to write about my emotions, but If I'm not keeping the pen moving, I can be over-critical of myself to be productive therapeutically. The songs on this record came from a season when I was writing so much and had a lot of time with myself, which led to a lot of self-growth. I'm hoping to get back to a season again soon where writing becomes more like muscle memory and therapy; I'm really interested to see what that yields.
'I've got a dream that's too damn big, I'm got my work to do,' is a line from the song, I've Got My Work To Do. What is the dream?
The dream is just to have a life where my art can support me financially, keep making records, and hopefully, it will get easier and easier. It seems impossible these days, with streaming being so unjust and touring being so difficult financially.
Tell me the background of Wild Geese, one of my favourite songs on the record.
That was one of the first songs I wrote when I got to Nashville. It was springtime, and I was really enamoured by the Mary Oliver poem of the same name about self-compassion and allowing yourself to make mistakes, be flawed, and not always have to be perfect. I was holding that sentiment, struggling with bad habits, and investing my love in the wrong places with people who were wrong for me. So, it's just a little self-compassion song written at a moment of being really fed up with myself.
You sign off with the song I Can Be Grateful. Is that a happy or sad ending to the album?
I think it's a bit of both. I wrote that song in about twenty minutes; it just poured out of me. It's a bit of a mantra when I'm downplaying any of my emotions. You can be really angry at how something played out but also happy that it happened at all.
You had your album launch recently in Nashville.
Yes, on Friday 22nd November at The Eastside Bowl. It was awesome; a lot of the music community in Nashville came out, and there were some new faces that I hadn't seen in a while. My band sounded great, and I'm so grateful that it went so well. Having worked on this record for so long it was great to celebrate it in my musical home at the moment. East Nashville is particularly magical in terms of being a respite for the arts and also for protecting the arts from industry in a sense, with people doing more experimental music.
How do you follow that album?
I'm curious to see where my next project takes me regarding the subject matter. I've already written about half of the next record, and I'm hitting subject matter aside from breakups. Hopefully, it will live up to this one.
In the meantime, you must get these songs out on the road and into people's hearts. What have you got lined up?
I'm hitting the road soon, touring with another queer artist from Nashville, Olive Klug; we're going to be in Texas and Oklahoma. In January, I will be out with Alexa Rose, and during the spring, I'm lining up shows in the North East with an incredible folk songwriter, Elise Leavy, who played accordion on my record.
Interview by Declan Culliton