Indie country artist Sarah Lake is Lightning 100’s local artist of the week! Lake has written for many artists in Nashville in addition to releasing her own original music. Lake was raised in Canada and North Carolina and has spent time living in entertainment epicenters New York and Nashville. She now calls Nashville her home and has become a pillar in Music City’s songwriting community.
Sarah Lake’s latest single “You Don’t Have To” was released on October 6th and has already reached over 100,000 streams on Spotify. Lake co-wrote “You Don’t Have To” with fellow songwriters Jillian Steele, James Adam Shelley, and Ernie Lake. Musically, “You Don’t Have To” features largely acoustic production, with prevalent banjos, guitars and earthy percussion. Lake’s warm, gentle vocals rise above the arrangement. Lyrically, Lake sings of all the things that her lover doesn’t “have to” do, but “if you don’t, someone else will.”
The music video for “You Don’t Have To” premiered on CMT on Friday, November 5th. Lake also has collaborated with ONErpm Studios to release a live, acoustic version of the single that will drop on November 26th. You can pre-save Lake’s live version of “You Don’t Have To” here. Also, be sure to check out the music video on YouTube below!
Listen all week to hear “You Don’t Have To” as we feature Sarah Lake as our Local Artist of the Week! Listen live on-air at 100.1FM or at lightning100.com.
