SUMMER SOUNDTRACK 2023

The Scene ’s music writers recommend local tunes for your summer trips and hangs, from Margo Price, Joy Oladokun and many more

The days (and most nights) are warm, the critters and plants seem very industrious, and the Memorial Day holiday has arrived; the solstice isn’t for another few weeks, but it sure feels like summer. No matter what your plans are — a trip to the beach, most important aspect of songwriting, and saying things that I’m scared to say out loud.”

DiRusso understands that degree of honesty can be unnerving to some. Case in point: the unsettling opening lines of the EP’s opening track “Emerson,” a song about the street in a suburban part of New York where she grew up: “Baptized by a pedophile / In a church that reeks of oak and death.”

“I think some of the stuff I say makes people feel a little uncomfortable,” she acknowledges with understatement.

In many ways, God, I Hate This Place represents a journey of self-discovery, prompted by a breakup she went through during her junior year at Belmont University, where she was studying songwriting and music business. At the end of “Emerson,” she shares a key realization from her experience, which she describes as “the thesis” of the record: “Guess I’ve never escaped me for too long / Guess I’ve only ever been who I was.”

“It’s like this weird juxtaposition, that I found to be really inspiring writing this EP, of the limit that puts on someone — being only able to be who they are — but also how freeing that is,” she says. “And I think being honest is the only way to really capture that juxtaposition.”

Both directly and indirectly, the aforementioned breakup and the causes behind it inform much of the record. DiRusso confronts unrealistic male-centric notions of female body image and beauty that can be damaging to the psyches of women young and old. While most of the material was written in 2022, DiRusso wrote “Body” in 2020 as a sort of personal declaration of independence right after that toxic relationship ended. At the beginning of the song, she poses the question, “Should I lose weight just so he’ll want me?” She defiantly provides an answer in the opening line of the chorus: “Not really one for trying to be who you want me to be.” a trip to the library, a trip to the club — you need a soundtrack. The Scene’s music scribes have a playlist of 2023 Nashville summer jams for you, which you can find on our website, and we’ve shared notes on some of our favorite tracks.

MARGO PRICE FEAT.

SHARON VAN ETTEN, “RADIO”

This song from Price’s latest LP Strays is about freedom — specifically, from the expectations of others and how they can drown out your needs.

“Radio” is an anthemic declaration of personal independence, with an electronic heartbeat that feels positively slinky and a new whistle-worthy melody at every turn. If you’ve planned a trek that’s meant to help you recharge so you can show up for yourself and others the way you want to, crank this one up.

STEPHEN TRAGESER

DiRusso recorded the EP at Forty-one Fifteen Studio in Nashville and Cutting Room Studios in New York. Josef Kuhn played drums, while Cummings played bass, as well as additional guitars, often contrasting DiRusso’s distortion-drenched riffing with soaring, melodic parts.

“I’ve been working with Jason since I was 16,” DiRusso says of Cummings, who has produced and engineered all her releases. “And I think with this project, as my firstever project [that’s] more than just singles, we were really able to push the boundaries.”

Wednesday night at The Beast, DiRusso will be performing with her touring band — Kuhn on drums, Zack Lockwood on bass and Eden Joel on lead guitar. A short while ago, she recorded a new song with the band.

THE MINKS, “FEELIN’ GOOD”

With its undeniable rhythm and sunny, upbeat message, it’s hard to imagine a song being a more appropriate theme for the summer than “Feelin’ Good” from The Minks’ new album Creatures of Culture. Drummer Dylan Sevey kicks off the track with a snare roll, then bassist Justin Pellecchia joins in on a groove so fat, funky and in-the-pocket it’s impossible to remain still. Lead guitarist Ben Giesecke plays some softly ringing notes to introduce the band’s bluesy lead vocalist Nikki Barber, who delivers a perfect mantra for a summer day or evening: “I’m feeling good / I’m feeling fine / You can try and try, but you won’t steal my shine / Because I’m feeling good.”

And that’s just the first 40 seconds. From there, it’s a full-blown funk-rock jam highlighted by Barber’s cosmic lyrics and Giesecke’s seriously expressive

“My only understanding of recording is just the kind of insular recording situation with just me and Jason playing everything,” she explains. “We typically — and we did for this EP — start with tracking the guitar with a click and then building a track around that.

“But recently I had an experience where I did record a newer song I’m working on, live tracking with my band, and it was an ‘aha’ moment for me,” she continues. “I really loved the process me and Jason have done, but I think for future stuff, I really like that feeling when I listen back to the thing I just recorded. I really loved [that] you could hear the whole band playing together and moving together, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is what I want.’”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM riffing and soloing. Producer Robbie Crowell adds swirling, trippy B3 throughout and saxophone on the swinging outro. Alicia Gail joins Barber and Pellecchia on the soulful backing vocals. This joint is a party, and you’re invited.

DARYL SANDERS

JOY OLADOKUN FEAT. NOAH KAHAN, “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE”

As Isaac Asimov wrote: “Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” I believe that’s what Joy Oladokun and Noah Kahan are getting at in “We’re All Gonna Die” from Oladokun’s April release Proof of Life. It’s a friendly reminder that not a damn one of us will get the answers to our burning questions before our lights go out.

All this talk of death and a troublesome journey might make it sound like this song is not a summery bop made for windows-down backroads cruisin’, but it absolutely is. Oladokun begins the song searching: “These days, something’s always turnin’ into / Nothin’ will change, I’m just tryin’ to find a / Way up when I’m down.” Kahan adds a verse all about the maneuvers we take to make ourselves look like we do have answers: “It’s bullshit / Don’t it make me sound / Sort of wise?” In the chorus, Oladokun and Kahan come to terms with the inevitable, singing, “We’re all gonna die trying to figure it out.” The song begs to be screamed with a group of your closest friends in the open air — we’re all in this together, after all.

AMANDA HAGGARD

MILEY CYRUS, “VIOLET CHEMISTRY”

Songwriting refreshes itself endlessly from those same basic, primal elements of the chromatic scale. But keeping that in mind, a song that brings together Mike Will Made-It, Jesse Shatkin and Sia has unexpected pop possibilities, and in the mad-scientist hands and voice of Miley Cyrus, “Violet Chemistry” is the kind of stealth smash that sneaks up you. The