“Top Ten Albums of 2021” – Mike Davies, Folk Radio UK
FOR RELEASE MARCH 4
KNOX, PA (January 25, 2022) – Garrett Heath announces the release of his cover of John Hartford’s classic, “In Tall Buildings” on March 4. It’s off the album, The Losing End, due out April 22.
Heath says, “This song has always had a hold on me. I can remember hearing it as a teenager and naively thinking I’d never compromise my freedoms and the natural beauty around me for a more material existence.” It hit home in an entirely different way when he graduated college and began his first career “office job.” Later, it spoke to him when he moved away from his small town and the rural landscapes he grew up with for several years. He says, “It speaks to me once again now that I’ve returned home to my rural roots and am raising my own children in the middle of the Pennsylvania woods. Of course, life still isn’t as simple as I thought when this song first found me, but I now find beauty in the tension it creates within my own heart.”
Many of the other songs on The Losing End deal with the darker side of rural America. “In Tall Buildings” serves as a reminder of the unique beauty in forgotten places that can’t be found anywhere else. There is a price to pay for leaving, despite new and better opportunities in a more “important” urban setting.
Heath says, “Covering a song in the studio is always a challenge because you’re trying to retain that spark of what made it special in the first place, yet also trying to make it your own as an artist. There’s no real point in singing someone else’s song unless you have some kind of fresh perspective to offer.” In this case, Heath strove to reframe “In Tall Buildings” in the broader context of daily life in rural America where some real complexity exists. Swirling Hammond B3 organs, harmonica, and a Fender Telecaster plugged straight into a ‘64 Deluxe Reverb help place this classic into the broader American musical context.
The album features a collection of stories from Heath’s own patchwork of rural rust-belt America, spanning over five decades. The Losing End hits on themes of economic decline, loss of opportunity, socio-political abandonment, as well as the subtle beauty of daily life in rural America. It’s this feeling of loss and cultural scorn that unifies the record and helps one understand what it’s like to be on “The Losing End.”
The Losing End Track Listing
- West Front St.
- Live for the Moment
- In Tall Buildings
- The Losing End
- Darker Still
- Same Old Story
- Morning Light
- Camaro
- Vanity
About Garrett Heath
A proponent of Dostoevsky’s maxim that “beauty will save the world,” soulful imagery and an honest voice appear at the cornerstone of Garrett Heath’s songwriting. His latest album Kingdom Come was hailed as a “Top 10 Album of 2021” by Folk Radio UK, and was mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Pete Lyman (Chris Stapleton, John Prine, Jason Isbell, etc.) at Infrasonic Sound in Nashville. Heath lives and works outside his hometown in rural western Pennsylvania, where he recorded the upcoming album The Losing End in his recording studio (Okiejoke Sound).
Praise For Garrett Heath
“Top Ten Albums of 2021” – Mike Davies, Folk Radio UK
“Shades of Springsteen surface at times, but Heath’s approach seems kinder, simpler…Given the time and space, the songs may grow with you and offer a release from a restless world.” – Americana UK
“Top Ten of the Week” – The Alternate Root
