Nashville songwriters Justin Hiltner and Jon Weisberger have released a single from their upcoming joint project, Watch It Burn.
The dup is perhaps an unlikely pairing, with Weisberger a seasoned bluegrass hand, playing bass for many years with Chris Jones & The Night Drivers and contributing hit songs to artists from Doyle Lawson to The Infamous Stringdusters, while Hiltner is a young writer just making his bones in Music City. But the two are good friends, and find that they write well together despite the difference in age and experience.
Though the songs on the new album don’t all fall squarely in the style Bill Monroe gave us, they are all given a bluegrass treatment from a crack band, including Justin on banjo and Jon on bass, along with Molly Tuttle on guitar, Casey Campbell and Tristan Scroggins on mandolin, fiddle from Brandon Godman, Kimber Ludiker, and Corrina Logston, and vocal harmony from Amanda Fields, and Tim O’Brien.
For today’s single, they have chosen What I Miss the Most, which Jon says has a little crooked twist.
“I’m a big fan of the songwriting of the late Aubrey Holt (Boys From Indiana), and one of the things I like most about his songs is the way that he could write lines that incorporate extra beats or partial measures in a natural, almost unnoticeable way. This one features something similar, and reminds me of Aubrey’s writing in its faithfulness to homespun imagery, right down to the old porch swing. Thanks to Ellie Hakanson for the killer tenor vocal!”
Justin also shared a few words about the song, inspired by his own bluegrass life.
“I came up with the idea for What I Miss the Most after getting home from being out the road performing. I realized that my predictable post-tour funk was largely thanks to not feeling like I was coming home to anyone who had missed me. Now if that isn’t perfectly suited for a bluegrass song, I don’t know what is!”
Watch It Burn won’t be released until August 17, but pre-orders are enabled now online. The single is available for download purchase now on iTunes.
