Veteran bluegrass artist and celebrated songwriter Donna Ulisse has a new single to share with Turnberry Records.
It’s one she co-wrote called Gate City, a fictional story about a real place, and a man who sees that his time on earth is short, with a lifetime of regret and longing on his soul.
Donna says that the story was inspired by repeated views of a roadside sign.
“I wrote Gate City with my longtime friend and co-writer Marc Rossi years ago. I had stayed contemplative on a sign I’d been passing for years, each time my husband would bring me to the Clinch Mountains to visit my in-laws. I kept admiring the town name of Gate City stamped on the green and white road sign.
In my writer’s imagination I would picture this place as the bustling town surrounding Heaven. When I described it to Rossi we decided to make it about a mountain man who lived a sketchy life, and at the end of his journey he started worrying about how he would be judged in the town where The Gate stood.
Hope you like our wild mountain tale.”
The aforementioned husband, Rick Stanley, sings harmony on the track with Donna, with further assistance from Cody Kilby on guitar, Greg Davis on banjo, Nate Burie on mandolin, Jason Carter on fiddle, Evan Winsor on bass, and Mark Beckett on drums.
Have listen and see what you think of Gate City.
Gate City is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via Get It Played.
