Premiere: Billy Eli shares story song about a man ‘Getting Out of Denver’

You never know when a song will fall out of the sky. It can come at you like raindrops on a summer afternoon or maybe while you shower. Or, perhaps, it’s a chance conversation that changes your perspective. As with alt-country performer Billy Eli‘s new song “Getting Out of Denver,” premiering today on B-Sides & Badlands, the singer, songwriter, and musician takes cues from an unexpected meet-up.

“This could have easily happened to me, but it didn’t. It happened to a guy that owns a record store down the block from where I live,” he shares about the song’s inception. “I had popped in to talk to him, and I was telling him about having to fly to gigs, and I really hate having to fly, and he ended up telling me this story. So I turned it into a song. It’s such an Odysseus story.”

Eli’s voice trembles. It’s like a dove flitting and fluttering across an overcast sky. The crisp air weighs heavily upon his shoulders but doesn’t stop the inevitable trajectory. Such is the way of “Getting Out of Denver,” an epoch about getting stuck snowbound in an airport. “The airport bar is starting to feel like home / I got 20 more hours to go,” he sings. “Runway’s covered up in snow / Rocky Mountains are big and looking bigger.”

He paints in just enough detail to invite the listener into his world. There are few tunesmiths as astute in dissecting human experiences quite like Eli. As the song unravels, it’s like the snowfall piling up around the listener. It’s a front-row seat to a story song that doesn’t skimp on the life lesson: bask in the present because it’s the only chance you’ve got.

Listen to “Getting Out of Denver” below.

Follow Eli on his socials: Facebook