Violet Delancey

“It’s an age-old story, and one that Delancey, who has a graduate degree in mythology, no doubt appreciates: Young woman falls under the spell of music-making, abandons embarked-upon career, and moves to a location that facilitates her newfound passion. In [Delancey’s] case, talent matches ambition, to judge by her accomplished debut, “When the Clock Strikes Midnight.” The album moves from the sound of Hot Band-era Emmylou Harris to acoustic country and galloping Celtic-tinged folk, with Nashville cats such as Paul Franklin and Stuart Duncan providing sterling support.” - The Boston Globe

Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, and Emmylou Harris may come to mind when listening to Nashville’s Violet Delancey, but her upcoming When the Clock Strikes Midnight is a blend of fresh and modern with American roots music sprinkled in. The February 19th release features nine original songs and two country covers- Guy Clark’s “She Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” and Gram Parsons “Luxury Liner”. - Elmore Magazine

Following in the tradition of Gram Parsons comes Violet Delancey. She is the real thing, folks. Even though she comes from Southern California, she sounds like she’s from the the hill country just west or east of the Appalachians, from one of the small trading towns. Violet has garnered favorable comparisons to Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, and Emmylou Harris, but her aesthetic is singular. When the Clock Strikes Midnight is a modern album rooted in tradition; an album that takes the best of both worlds – the classic, left-of-center country music pioneered by Delancey’s idols, as well as the freshness and fierceness of a new songwriter who, after years of studying other people’s stories, is ready to spin some of her own – and rolls them into something new. When the Clock Strikes Midnight features 11 songs, 9 of which are originals and the two country evergreens Guy Clark’s “She Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” and Gram Parsons “Luxury Liner.” All I know is I super love her, and she certainly deserves all the accolades she is getting. - AudioFuzz

Much like the bards who retold the classic stories that helped re-enforce the values of ancient civilizations, music furthers the archetypes and themes given to previous generations.

This is the potential appeal for newer songwriters – reworking the new product of their arrangement of notes into a hopefully familiar presentation that strikes “emotional paydirt” by the first listen. And with the family of music that shares lineage as “the southern genres,” the familiarity is so much expected that it becomes meta-artistic.

TheRowdy recently caught up with Nashville bard and newcomer artist Violet Delancey to discuss her working new artistic energy by playing with the familiar, and how it all ties into her next big project.

TheRowdy: Being a new artist, how do you make a name for yourself? What traps and obstacles are you looking to dodge as fresh talent?
Violet Delancey: I started out looking to follow in the footsteps of the artists who most inspire me –that was the best way to learn and what brought me to Nashville. It helped me find my way and discover the kinds of communities I wanted to be a part of and the people I wanted to work with. I've learned a lot about the craft of writing and performing that way. But as I strive to create my own place in the music world, I want to make sure I continue to discover my own voice and keep my writing true to who I am. In music, as with almost anything artistic, new artists will always be deriving inspiration from and building upon those who have come before them, and there's nothing wrong with that – it's a good thing. I'm so strongly influenced by the artists who pulled me into music, and I hope that ultimately I can use what I've learned from the musical greats to explore some piece of new territory.

Rowdy: Your album When the Clock Strikes Midnight plays into your academic study of myths?
VD: As a student of mythology, I examined how ideas and symbols appeared repeatedly through time in different cultures, searching for themes that were universal to the human experience. These things can't help but turn up in music, especially Americana music, which is so deeply rooted in storytelling. I understood the value of the song as a way to keep myth alive, which is ultimately what inspired me to sit down and write. I'm always exploring the nature of time as it passes: what changes, what is lost, and what lasts forever. The songs that comprise my record are for the most part related to my own personal coming of age experiences – a process which is deeply mythic. I think that all great songs relate back to something universal, which is why so many people recognize truth in them. Following in this tradition, the stories in my songs are all drawn from the well of myths that I spent so many years immersed in. In some more moody songs like "Back to the Sea," myth is present in a subtle way through the images that tell the story. The title track, "When the Clock Strikes Midnight" plays more overtly with the idea of living through stories as I pretend to live the Cinderella fairytale in the modern context of a date at a bar.


Rowdy: How did your travels to London make you appreciate Americana more? Also, how would you describe the difference between Americana music abroad and that made over here?
VD: When I was in London, I realized that I was not pursuing a path that I really wanted to follow and also found myself feeling incredibly homesick for the first time in my life. I became obsessed with the music that to me was the most truly American – music by great American songwriters like Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson while simultaneously began reaching for some sort of creative outlet that would be more fulfilling than academic life; that convergence of events set me on the path towards creating Americana music. What I didn't appreciate at the time was what a creative city London is. It is impossible not to feel the creative energy of the city's immense history of writers, artists, playwrights, actors, and, of course, musicians. Although I felt stifled by my academic life there, I was unknowingly energized by the presence of that creative heritage. I lived in east London, where I was surrounded by other artists and musicians. Once I started playing out, I discovered a local community of American expat Americana artists. I think that audiences in the UK appreciate Americana in a different way than in the US – they are almost thirsty for it, and anyone who plays something echoing it is welcomed and encouraged. It was a great place to start out and get my bearings as a musician, but at the time I had no idea.


Rowdy: As a songwriter, what do you think is your strongest track lyrically on the album, and why?
VD: Lyrically I'm very proud of "Lost Along the Way." I co-wrote the song with my producer, Brent Truitt. Though I came to him with the seed of the song and most of the verses finished, we agonized over certain lines that weren't quite there initially. As a result I think we ended up with a lyrically powerful song.


Rowdy: On the album, you've got two covers? What are those covers, and what made you include them with your songs?
VD: The covers are "Luxury Liner" by Gram Parsons and "She Ain't Goin' Nowhere" by Guy Clark. I love the up tempo on-the-road feel of "Luxury Liner," and it's unlike any song I've written myself. I had a blast singing it because I got to play a badass character who wasn't quite me – a whole different side to being a singer that I miss sometimes as a songwriter. I chose it because it added an element to the album that wouldn't be there if it only consisted of my songs.

"She Ain't Goin' Nowhere" is one of my all time favorite songs. It's a song I wish I had written myself. I love how it captures a moment in time, and, as with most of Clark's writing, it's so idiosyncratic and yet so real. I have always loved Guy Clark's version, but I also always thought it would be fitting for a female vocalist.


Rowdy: Who has offered you the most help as an artist?
VD: Many people have shown me generosity along the way, but ultimately my family has helped me the most. They've always been encouraging and supportive. It's hard enough to put yourself out there, but I can't imagine how much harder it would be if you felt your family was disapproving.


Rowdy: Does the current nebulous state of the music industry intimidate you? Where you do you feel you fit in that monolith?
VD: I am not really intimidated by the state of the music industry. I have definitely benefited artistically from the unbridled access we have to all kinds of music now – it helped me find my way to the music that would most inspire and guide me. I also think that historically moments of great change in artistic industries are times when the greatest new artists who challenge the norms and forge new pathways tend to emerge. Of course the financial aspect of it is daunting, and it seems that what's going on in the industry makes it hard for a new artist to know exactly how to move forward except independently – but from what I've seen in the Americana scene, there are also a lot of exciting new possibilities opening up and I am optimistic!

Check out the YouTube link for Violet Delancey's cover of "She Ain't Goin' Nowhere" by Guy Clark, featuring Andrew Leahey (of the Homestead name). TheRowdy will revisit Violet's forthcoming album. - TheRowdy

When you think about it, who better to expand the great Americana tradition of storytelling than a graduate student studying mythology in London?

At face value, that’s what you’re getting with Violet Delancey — a Southern California native who made her way to Nashville in 2013, though not before a serious academic detour across the pond and into the world of mythic storytelling.


But Delancey, whose debut album When The Clock Strikes Midnight comes out Feb. 19, is quite a bit more than an ex-academic applying her knowledge of mythology to crafting songs. She’s a true storyteller in the vein of Emmylou Harris or Bob Dylan — not as captivating as either of them just yet, of course, but well on her way.

It’s hard not to compare Delancey with Harris, both for her simple, smooth-as-honey vocals and her sincere depiction of the human experience. Take, for instance, these lines from her song “Back To The Sea”: Somehow I forgot to weep/The night you finally slipped away/Now when I fall asleep/I wish I could wake up yesterday.

The song is a tribute to her grandma, who passed while Delancey was away. But the lines could just as easily apply to any loss by avoiding heavy-handed tropes that too quickly give away a context that is secondary to the listener’s own experience. And while it’s not too academic in approach, it is a lesson Delancey learned from academia. She told The Rowdy:

“As a student of mythology, I examined how ideas and symbols appeared repeatedly through time in different cultures, searching for themes that were universal to the human experience.

These things can’t help but turn up in music, especially Americana music, which is so deeply rooted in storytelling. I understood the value of the song as a way to keep myth alive, which is ultimately what inspired me to sit down and write. I’m always exploring the nature of time as it passes: what changes, what is lost, and what lasts forever.

The songs that comprise my record are for the most part related to my own personal coming of age experiences – a process which is deeply mythic. I think that all great songs relate back to something universal, which is why so many people recognize truth in them.”

It’s refreshing to hear an artist speak of songwriting in a way that suggests they care about the universality of the craft.

A lot of songwriters, particularly some of the biggest names in country, such as Dallas Davidson, retreat to a refrain of, “We’re just writing what we know” when people lambast them for churning out songs like Luke Bryan’s “That’s My Kind Of Night.”

What those arguments fail to recognize is that, even when writing about something deeply personal, like the loss of a relative, “writing what you know” should be an ace up your sleeve, not an excuse. Because the nature of humanity posits that deep down, somewhere, what you know is what we all know, even if the emotion has nothing to do with the face value meaning of the song. At her best, Delancey exemplifies that universality quite well.

She also enlisted some killer musicians to help her songs translate from paper to wax (ok, more likely plastic, and most likely digital bits). Nashville producer Brent Truitt brought a sound that is both retro in feel and modern to the ear to the record, a feat accomplished thanks in no small part to Grammy award winning musicians like Bryan Sutton, Paul Franklin and Stuart Duncan.

Truitt also shared some songwriting duties with Delancey, ensuring the two were on the same page from the onset. All in all, When The Clock Strikes Midnight features 9 originals and 2 covers — Gram Parson’s “Luxury Liner” and Guy Clark’s “She Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.”

They round out a very solid debut effort in the vein of what used to be popular in 1970s country and what is still very popular in today’s Americana. You’ve very likely never heard of Violet Delancey, but come Feb. 19, you certainly shouldn’t ignore her. - Wide Open Country

Artist: Violet Delancey
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Song: "Lost Along the Way"
Album: When the Clock Strikes Midnight
Release Date: February 19
Label: Honky Tonk Fairytale Music

In Their Words: "'Lost Along the Way' explores the nature of love as it changes with the passing of time. The new album contains songs that orbit around a coming of age theme, and this song examines the fall from innocence experienced with the loss of love. Co-written with producer Brent Truitt and featuring guitarist Bryan Sutton, the song tells a tale as old as time with a sound that echoes music from decades gone by." -- Violet Delancey - The Bluegrass Situation

Violet Delancey’s career started with a storybook quality to it. Delancey, who’s playing Greensboro’s Common Grounds on Sunday, Jan.

24, was studying folklore and mythology, the archetypes of fairy tales, the structural theories behind them, earning a Master’s degree in London, when she decided to jump ship on an academic career and pursue a path as a songwriter. It might not be an epic quest, or one involving journeys to the underworld, transformative spells cast by gods or anything like that. But Delancey, 25, has followed her vision like someone who, if not possessed, is at least on a mission.

Her debut album, When The Clock Strikes Midnight, comes out in February. The title might even carry a whiff of the Cinderella story with it. The music evokes more recent figures of legend, the classic country of the 1970s, part Emmylou Harris part Dolly Parton, with a Bakersfield twang to the backing band and a calm sense of purpose to Delancey’s singing.

There’s plenty linking the worlds of mythology and country music -- timeless storylines, a moral logic, narrative compression, and themes of justice, loyalty, and pride. Delancey saw the connection.

“What I was studying and what I was interested in was just really alive in music,” says Delancey.

The idea that there are certain potent universal structures -- like a blues chord progression or a song about love gone bad -- is something that most country music fans can probably relate to, whether or not they’d talk about it in those terms. Thinking of songs and myths as bubbling up from the same well of the unconscious can help explain how a mix of simplicity and subtle mystery can make for enduring creations.

“That’s the beauty of the mythic core of things: it’s there no matter what, and you can’t really get away from it,” says Delancey.

Delancey grew up in southern California, went to college in the Northeast and then headed off to England when she was 22. As an American abroad, Delancey drew closer to the country and roots music that she’d always been fond of. When she wasn’t busy doing research in London, plugging into the music scene there helped Delancey get sight of her goals.

“I moved to London not knowing anybody,” she says. “I was spending hours in the library in a gray city. Music became the lifeforce for me there.”

A song’s pull on us can be mysterious and elusive. The ways that the pairing of melody and lyrics play on our emotions and memory would seem to sometimes be at odds with the simplicity of the material.

“It’s like a magic that the poetic images in a song have that you don’t know why they’re making you feel the way you feel,” says Delancey.

But just because one studies and studies the rudiments of songwriting and mythmaking, that doesn’t make one capable of making something timeless and captivating like the best ancient stories or well-worn country songs. Delancey says that when she was working on her own songs -- while also studying the work of Gram Parsons, Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt -- she tried not to overthink the process or the form.

“I didn’t want to be too analytical,” she says. “Sometimes I fall into that, and I catch myself analyzing what I’m doing before I’ve even got my feelings out.”

It’s not like Delancey’s really had a lot of spare time to kick back and ponder the connective tissue of her songs though. When she left London two years ago she decided, like many country-tinged singer/songwriters before her, to head to Nashville. Delancey says she figured she’d throw herself into the craft of songwriting, surrounding herself with people who take songcraft seriously. To land in Music City at the age of 23 and to turn around two years later with a solo debut backed by solid session players is a feat that must only happen to one in several thousand country-music hopefuls.

There are lots of variations of the fairytale story when it comes to making it in Nashville. Some involve cleaning the floors at the right studio at the right time and running into a legend. Others involve slogging away for years, on the verge of poverty, sickness or giving up before finally earning a chance to get your songs heard by the right set of ears. Delancey’s story has its own unlikely symmetries. This batch of a half-dozen shows that the singer is playing will be the first time she’s performed on stage outside of Nashville and London. The North Carolina shows will be solo, but Delancey will be joining up with her backing band for gigs in Los Angeles and New York.

It’s difficult to know if Delancey’s hyperspeed career arc is one that suggests the mythic workings of fate and destiny or whether it’s related to the more mundane, and fundamentally American, mechanics of hard work and hustle, enterprise and persistence.

Some have said that if you’re down on your luck in London, you’re a goner. But Delancey took the negative energy of a mismatched academic career move and used it to nudge herself back toward something that had more meaning for her.

“I don’t think I would have fallen into music with the vigor that I did had I not been in that situation in England,” she says. “Somehow it led me exactly to the direction that I’m going in.” - Yes! Weekly