Photo by Beehive Photo and Video
Premiere: Emily Hicks flies free with new song, ‘Picket Fenced In’
Hicks’ flutters up to the sun with her new cut.
Emily Hicks is a free spirit at the mercy of the winds like a tumbleweed. She’s a little unruly but possesses a kindhearted nature. With her new song “Picket Fenced In,” she reflects upon her decades-long marriage and how together, they still fly independently of one another. Written with good friend and musician Janie Waddell, who threw out the title lyric “during a write for a different song,” the sweeping track emerged out of an understanding that “it was more than a simple lyric – it was deserving of its own hook,” says Hicks.
Electric guitars quake, inflating Hicks’ reedy voice with a higher-than-heaven intonation. “I’ve never been white picket fenced in,” she proclaims in the chorus beneath a blanket of strings, percussion, and other instruments. Her voice is an immovable force. Production swirls around her shoulders, and she never wavers. She only keeps guiding the ship like a captain navigating tumultuous waters on the shoreline. But she’s as steady as she goes, always taking the instruments in her hands, metaphorically speaking, and bending them to her will.
With “Picket Fenced In,” Hicks reflects upon her marriage and the ongoing chase to find her dreams. “My husband and I have been together for 10+ years and have always had this wildly independent, trusting relationship,” she tells B-Sides & Badlands, “so this song fell out fairly easily once Janie and I got to writing it. As my husband likes to say, we are just two best friends watching each other chase our dreams.”
“Picket Fenced In” anchors Emily Hicks’ forthcoming debut record, Weird Wild Wonderful, expected sometime this fall.
Listen to “Picket Fenced In” below.
