Toronto-Born Heather Russell’s Tears From The Dive Bar Finds the Rhythm in Life’s Beautiful Mess
By Megan Routledge | The Sound Cafe Journal
Toronto-born singer-songwriter Heather Russell signs with Prescription Songs as she opens a new chapter with a six-track EP
Heather Russell has spent much of her life around music.
Discovered at a young age and first reaching audiences through YouTube before appearing on American Idol, the Toronto-born singer-songwriter has spent more than 15 years developing a career that has taken her through different sounds, cities and stages of the music industry.
Now, she is entering another chapter.
Russell has signed with independent publishing company Prescription Songs, with the deal led by the company's Nashville-based VP of A&R, Chris Martignago. The partnership follows a series of releases including “Don’t Know What You Had,” “Killing Spree,” “Adam Sandler” and “Bullets,” and continues with her new EP, Tears From The Dive Bar, released October 2 through Amigo Records, Prescription Songs' independent label counterpart.
The title alone offers a pretty good indication of where Russell is headed.
Rather than presenting a perfectly polished version of life, Tears From The Dive Bar leans into the complicated middle ground where heartbreak, bad decisions, humour and a good night out can all exist at the same time.
Russell describes the project as “a manic invitation to celebrate the art of being a mess,” and that idea runs through the EP's six tracks. The songs are rooted in her own emotional experiences, but they are delivered with enough energy and humour to keep the listener moving rather than simply dwelling in the difficult moments.
“With every unhinged, and quite frankly embarrassing confession, it teleports you into an imperfectly perfect world that makes you wanna throw it all away while you hit a two step,” Russell says.
It is a fitting description for an artist whose songwriting doesn't seem particularly interested in tidy answers.
Her music draws from traditional folk and country alongside contemporary pop, creating a genre-blending sound that reflects both her Canadian roots and the influence of the four years she spent living in Nashville.
Returning to Canada also brought a realization that Nashville had left a lasting impression.
“Somewhere along the way, Nashville stole her heart,” the announcement notes, and that connection is evident in the musical territory surrounding this new project.
There is also a sense that Russell has reached a point in her career where experience matters as much as ambition. The young performer who first built an audience online is now writing from a considerably different place, drawing on years spent navigating the music business and the emotional experiences that inevitably come with growing up in public.
That perspective gives Tears From The Dive Bar its personality.
The EP opens with its title track before moving through “Adam Sandler,” “Don’t Know What You Had,” “Killing Spree,” “Bullets” and “Role Model.” Several of the songs have already formed part of Russell's recent run of releases, while the complete EP brings them together as part of a broader statement about where she is creatively.
There is something particularly fitting about the dive bar setting.
A dive bar is rarely concerned with appearances. It is a place where people can arrive carrying whatever happened earlier in the day, order something, find a corner, meet a stranger, hear a song and perhaps make a decision they will have to explain tomorrow.
Russell's songs occupy a similar space.
They don't require their characters to have everything worked out before the music begins. Instead, they allow room for contradictions, questionable decisions and emotions that don't always behave themselves.
For Russell, that is part of the appeal.
“None of us know what we’re doing,” she says of the project.
It is a simple thought, but perhaps an appropriate one for an EP built around the idea of letting go of the expectation that everything has to make sense.
The Prescription Songs signing adds another dimension to this next stage of Russell's career. Based in Los Angeles and Nashville, the independent publishing company represents songwriters and producers across a wide range of genres and has worked with an extensive roster of Grammy-recognised and award-winning talent.
For Russell, the relationship continues a period of renewed activity around her songwriting and releases, while Tears From The Dive Bar gives listeners a clearer sense of the world she is building around this latest chapter.
And that world doesn't seem particularly interested in behaving itself.
There are tears, questionable choices, old wounds and enough rhythm to make standing still difficult.
Perhaps that is exactly the point.
Tears From The Dive Bar doesn't promise that anyone has figured life out. Instead, Heather Russell seems perfectly comfortable reminding us that sometimes the best way through the mess is to put on a song, find the beat and keep moving.
Tears From The Dive Bar
Tears From The Dive Bar
Adam Sandler
Don’t Know What You Had
Killing Spree
Bullets
Role Model
Tears From The Dive Bar is out now via Amigo Records.
The Sound Cafe Journal
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