SPOTLIGHT: Front Country on Finding the Strength to Sing [VIDEO]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Front Country is No Depression’s Spotlight band for October. Read our interview with the trio here, and hear from the band’s members themselves on what they see in music’s future, and their own, in these essays.

Even though the songs of Front Country’s new album, Impossible World, out this Friday, were written before the pandemic, and before the 2020 election cycle was in its full horrific swing, they contain lots of words of wisdom that are highly relevant now — but also some that are timeless. On “How Can You Sing,” the band recognizes that doubt and fear can be paralyzing, but offers a reminder that pain can lead to something beautiful as you battle through it.

Whether you take “sing” literally or figuratively here, the song offers hope for something good coming out of hard times, for it all being worth it in the end.

How can you sing if you can’t cry?
It’s like claiming to see while closing your eyes.
How can you feel anything if you hold it inside,
How can you sing if you never learn to cry?

Earlier this month, with touring still a distant dream, the band’s members got together in a favorite local venue — seated offstage, with no audience — to play a little music and bring a little light.

“As a touring band, we aren’t used to playing in bars in the morning daylight hours, but then again, nothing is normal in 2020,” says singer and guitarist Melody Walker. “We haven’t felt safe yet to play a real show for an audience, and we aren’t sure when we will, but we thought it would be nice to sit a while in our favorite local hang, Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge in Madison, Tennessee, and play a song or two from the new album. How Can You Sing is my meditation on self-doubt and learning to draw strength from the vulnerability and humility found in that feeling. It’s a reminder that, while walls can protect us, they can also numb us from experiencing all that life has to offer.”