Who doesn’t love a good bluegrass prison song? Our genre has plenty of good ones. Now Daniel Crabtree has a new addition, an escaped prisoner song to boot, the second single from his upcoming Bell Buckle/Codel album, The Way I See It.
Like so many artists, Daniel’s embrace of bluegrass and Gospel music started early, grabbing him when he was only 15. He recalls listening to the Opry on Saturday nights with his girlfriend, now his wife, and being drawn ever closer to her, and the music.
But he says it was a freak occurrence once while he was a teen that really started him on a musical journey.
“Daddy always had an old guitar sitting around the house that he played. We had an ice storm that came through that winter and we had no electricity for about nine days. There wasn’t very much to do, so that is when I first remember taking the time to pick up that old guitar and learn how to play it.”
Before long he was making up words and writing songs, and performing them at his place of worship, the Lights Chapel Baptist Church in Greenbrier, TN. After meeting Donna Ulisse at a songwriting camp, Crabtree found the encouragement to record his music, producing a pair of independent, all-Gospel projects, recorded at Scott Vestal’s Digital Underground Studio.
Following those came an album of primarily original secular material, and The Way I See It will mix his secular and Gospel songs.
With this latest single, Daniel says that he tried to empathize with a man in a desperate position.
“I wanted to get inside the mind of an escaped convict, and humanize the character in a way by giving the listener something to sympathize about with him. His mother is dying and all he can think about is getting home to see her one last time. No matter our pasts, we can all relate to each other on that level.”
Daniel is supported here on On The Run by Scott Vestal on banjo, Patrick McAvinue on fiddle, Gaven Largent on reso-guitar, Harry Clark on mandolin, Cody Kilby on guitar, and Evan Winsor on bass. Donna Ulisse, Rick Stanley, and Aaron McCune provide harmony vocals.
On The Run will be available as a single on Friday, November 20 wherever you stream or download music online. Radio programmers can get the track now via AirPlay Direct.
