Premiere: Andrew Leahey & the Homestead need you to ‘Remember This’

Sacrifice is consequential to dream-chasing. It’s the price you pay, perhaps shedding some blood, sweat and tears along the way, for the things and people you adore. Even when circumstances look nothing but grim, the clouds swirling in devilish circles overhead, you plow through it all with the hope the payoff will be glorious and swift. In softening the landing a bit, and turning his eye to basking in the light, Nashville’s Andrew Leahey & the Homestead readies for a weekend of intimacy and rejuvenation on a new song “Remember This,” premiering today. “She deserves something better and lovely to miss,” the swarthy troubadour waxes romantic about his wife.

The guitars lay thick, fluffy as rose petals around him, his cheeks flushing and feeling an overwhelming mist of love rain down upon him. “I’ve been sweeping floors clean / Keeping myself neat / Tapping the breaks and adjusting speed,” he sings, positioning not only the physical labor to prepare for the rendezvous but his own personal upkeep. “I’m shifting through these older records to find a song that’ll get her / To soften that smile if it lands on me.” The dust settles on his life, if only for a few hours and days, and while the sun barrels along its route from dawn to dusk without concern, Leahey somehow freezes time in its tracks. Originally from Virginia, the singer-songwriter (and sometimes guitarist for other musicians) has survived a brutal, overpowering music business, as well as a brain tumor in 2013, and so you could say he’s the warrior type.

He tells B-Sides & Badlands of the song, “I’m married to a veterinarian-to-be named Emily. She’s been in vet school since August 2016, which is the same month I released my previous album, ‘Skyline in Central Time.’ Since that time, we’ve had an unusual living situation where she spends most of her time at school in Knoxville, while I split my time between Nashville, Knoxville and the road. Both of us are chasing down long-term goals, so we don’t see each other as often as we’d like.”

Leahey trims the pain away from his heart to reveal a throbbing shape that has grown nearly twice in size. The swelling is finally alleviated, and wrapped in the moment, he learns that compromise might leave him bruised and battered but he’s far stronger to endure the inevitable marathon. “I wrote [this song] at our home in Nashville, while fixing up the house in preparation for Emily’s two-day visit later that weekend,” he continues. “The song opens with me getting the place ready [‘I’ve been working on the doorway / Dressed the wood with new paint / As if a brighter blue is gonna make her stay’], although by the final chorus, you don’t really know if I’m sprucing up the house or myself. I suppose the whole song is about giving the most memorable person in your life something worth remembering.”

“Remember This” is one of many Americana-framed rock ‘n rollers from his new album, Airwaves, out this Friday (March 1). Leahey is currently out on the road through mid-summer.

Listen below:

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