Daily Discovery: Joseph LeMay, “You Still Do It”

Updated:

July 3, 2014 2:24 pm

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Joseph LeMay wrote his album “Seventeen Acres” in the most authentic of environments, his 17 acre property in rural Tennessee. His music embodies the story-teller tradition of country/roots music. His sound harkens back to a calmer, peaceful era and creates a timelessness that makes it easy to engage the listener.

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ARTIST: Joseph LeMay

SONG: “You Still Do It” of his debut record ‘Seventeen Acres’

BIRTHDATE: 2/7/1990

HOMETOWN: Dyersburg, TN

CURRENT LOCATION: Just moved back to Nashville after two years on our farm near Dyersburg.

AMBITIONS: Geez, I don’t know if I can type them. I want to make a great record every year or so. I want to play great shows all around the world. I want to live and work on my own terms. At the risk of sounding trite, I want my songs to find their way to people who need them. I want a pair of sunglasses. I want spring and fall to last longer.

TURN-OFFS: Not a huge fan of Pepsi products.

TURN-ONS: I’m beginning to realize that I am almost always in the mood for a really good cheese burger.

DREAM GIG: Carnegie Hall

FAVORITE LYRIC: I can’t choose, but one of my favorites is from a Blake Mills tune “Women Know”. It’s more about his delivery than the lyrics themselves, I think. “How will I ever know it’s real? How do you think that makes me feel?” So sharp.

CRAZIEST PERSON I KNOW: Are we talking clinically? Throw a dart at my family.

SONG I WISH I WROTE: Currently in awe of “Sweet Adeline” by Elliot Smith and “Out On the Weekend” by Neil Young.

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: 5 is too many. Louis C.K. and Bill Withers.

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: My buddy Dan and I drove to DC to see Fionna Apple and Blake Mills last fall. It’s still the best show I’ve ever seen.

I WROTE THIS SONG:

This song came together in pieces, very organically over time. I had just begun doing these night walks around the farm. It was fall I think. The air was thinning out for winter, and you could hear coyote’s all the way across the river. I started humming the verse melody and some lyrics-pretty close to the final lyrics-came to mind. It reminded me of a Willie Nelson song. I could hear his voice sitting perfectly on the melodic lift between “moon” and “shines” as well as on the slide into “Late at night…” at the top of verse one. I wrote both verses that night, but didn’t have a chorus. I made a voice memo and left it alone. A few months later, it popped into my head while driving and it hit me that the chorus should be big and open like an old Motown number. Something with a lot of room to breath. I think I finished it that afternoon. It was one of those that you don’t need a guitar to write.