The Tender Things Tackle Ideas of Isolation and Wealth on New Single “How You Make a Fool”

Novice and professional songwriters alike often carry their own set of unique skills and virtuosity that propel them, but some of even the most talented songwriters are not as clever as country-folk mavens The Tender Things.  

Several renditions in on the songwriting, The Tender Things have crafted a stimulating and provoking music video for their new single and title track “How You Make a Fool” from their forthcoming record. 

“‘How You Make a Fool’ illustrates a turning point in my songwriting.  I’m a young writer, only a few years into it at this point, and this song had several clunky, graceless early versions.  Version after version I edited it down to a series of images that created the movement I wanted,” said frontman Jesse Ebaugh. “When in the editing process a song begins to come into focus it feels like I have found the ‘solution’ to it, as though it were a puzzle. I’ll leave it to the listener to divine some meaning from the lyrics, but I can say that I feel I’ve set upon a template that I can see in other songs like Neil Young’s ‘Helpless.’” 

Both the video and song boast the same feel-good, throwback flair.  The video is built on images of friends, jam sessions, good times and real people enjoying life on a Saturday afternoon.  The music is bursting with nostalgic sixties tonalities from keyboards, and tremolo guitar riffs shaded with a bit of a rockabilly quality, enhancing its danceability.  It’s upright groovy and fun, at least viscerally. The lyrics are simple and always circle back to the chorus’ motif, but the song is not about what you’d think.

“The subject matter of the song deals in isolation, so I tried to balance that with the video, instead of just illustrating it. I do wonder if that will be lost on the viewer-listener, but it is a chance I’m willing to take,” explained Ebaugh.  “I can say that the good time captured in the video is genuine. The shoot spilled over into an after-hours at musician Carson McHone’s place, much to the chagrin of Carson’s roommate, who I’m sure got very little sleep that night due to all of the musicians singing in their kitchen.”

“How You Make a Fool,” when peered at carefully, presents an underlying dichotomy of the isolation idea the song is about and the portrait of the American class system and perspectives, behaviors of the wealthy.  It’s meaning is simple and transparent if you take a closer listen at the verses: Cigarettes, Champagne wine, lipstick red, new pair of shoes, that’s how you make a fool.  Airplane tickets, new credit lines, trading secrets…that’s how you make a fool. There is something to be learned from the lyrics and something to be felt in the music.