Kip Moore Drops Nostalgic Acoustic Ballad, ‘Tennessee Boy’ [Listen]
Kip Moore's seven-track acoustic EP Room to Spare doesn't drop until November, but he's giving fans an early listening with a new track called "Tennessee Boy." The stripped-down song finds Moore looking back nostalgically on a past love ... while sipping a little moonshine.
“I was telling [songwriter Dan Couch] a story about laying on the hood of a girl named Gretchen’s Honda Accord out in the woods in South Georgia,” Moore tells Esquire of writing the song with Couch, a frequent collaborator, on his tour bus one night. “We were listening to Van Morrison’s ‘Moondance’ and we were wine-drunk and started dancing all around. That was my introduction to that carefree-love feeling.”
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As Moore explains, he began strumming a riff and wanted to find the lyrics and storyline that would fit the vibe he had.
“When I [first] played that, it immediately made my soul feel good,” he admits. “I knew the lyric and melody had to match what the guitar was doing. It felt nostalgic immediately. It took me back to growing up. I was like, that's what we have to capture."
With delicate acoustic guitar, light tambourine and Moore's rhythmic vocals, the song comes to life with the songwriters' vivid description:
"Tennessee boy gonna sip a little shine / Sip a little shine / Tennessee boy / Twist off the lid like grandad did / Let the fiddle make a little mountain noise / All across them rocky tops / Copper stills on shotgun watch / Apple pie and Lemon drop / Dropping down like rain," Moore sings to open "Tennessee Boy."
"Tennessee Boy" is the first instant grat from Moore's EP Room to Spare, available for pre-order now. The EP drops on Nov. 16 and will be followed by a four-date Room to Spare Acoustic Tour.
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