John Salaway joined Lightning 100 last Thursday, January 23rd, to talk about his newest album, Americana Dreams. He also performed two songs from the album. He accompanied by Bri Murphy, one of the collaborators on the album.
Salaway started his live set with A Little Bit Broken, the first single off of Americana Dreams. A Little Bit Broken was Casey’s pick of the week back in July. Check out the music video for the single below.
Music is in Salaway’s blood. His father played drums and left his Ludwig drumset in the garage until one day, John discovered it. That’s when he caught the music bug. When Salaway wasn’t drumming, he saw bands such as The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. These bands went on to become some of the greatest influences on his music today. Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills, and Nash were highly influential in the creation of Americana Dreams.
With all these fantastic bands, there is one more that must be added: The Beatles. John shared that The Beatles are his favorite band of all time. Many of his songs seem to evoke The Beatles even without the intent to do so. Understandably, Salaway was happy to have the opportunity to work with Geoff Emerick (mixing and recording engineer on Revolver, Abbey Road, and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band).
Soon after picking up drums, Salaway felt the pull to begin writing his own songs, so he picked up a guitar. Not only is he a songwriter and performer, but Americana Dreams was also produced and recorded by Salaway himself alongside engineer, Josh Koskela. In his writing process for Americana Dreams, John brought in artists like India Ramey (A Little Bit Broken), Joey Fletcher (Take the High Road), and Bri Murphy (It’s All in Your Mind). He emphasized the importance of collaboration in a city like Nashville saying, “This is a beautiful thing about Nashville, we are surrounded by incredible, talented, creative people and the spirit of collaboration is incredible. If you just reach out to people and collaborate, you never know what you might come up with,”.
The second song Salaway performed was It’s All in Your Mind. Bri Murphy joined him on fiddle and backup vocals. Described as a letter in the form of a song to anyone feeling down and dwelling on negativity in an effort to get them to let it go.
Salaway played to a sold-out Bluebird Cafe on Sunday, January 26th with his band Stone River Saints. Now, if All You Need Is Love… or more of John Salaway’s music… check him out with his Beatles tribute band, Forever Abbey Road at City Winery on Thursday, February 6th.
His newest album, Americana Dreams is available now. Take a listen to John Salaway’s interview with Lightning 100 below as well as his stripped-down versions of A Little Bit Broken and It’s All in Your Mind.
Written by Erin Renfro
