“Top Ten Albums of 2021” – Mike Davies, Folk Radio UK
FOR RELEASE APRIL 8
KNOX, PA (March 30, 2022) – Garrett Heath announces the release of his Appalachian roots single, “Same Old Story,” on April 8. A song for those dissatisfied with the current trajectory of their lives, it’s off the album, The Losing End, due out April 22. Told from the perspective of a blue-collar worker in rural America trying to support his family, the song revolves around the abandonment of one’s dreams for some practical and material good.
The song opens by posing the question: “Am I the man I’m meant to be? I work to feed my family; I go to work but I have dreams…” This is the question of a broken man caught between the practical realities of his life and the dreams he’s been taught to chase since his childhood.
The real tension shows itself in the second verse when this man understands that there must be some real beauty within his mundane existence, he just isn’t capable of seeing it. The American Dream, to him, is just a fantasy, or perhaps some cruel impossibility that could never lie within his grasp. But still, he’s got to find some semblance of peace since real life must be lived within this tension.
The album expands on that idea, featuring 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 debut album, Whisper in the Dark, sparked a tour of the eastern US in 2013. His music was also featured in the 2014 feature film, “Potential Inertia” (OneFishFilms). 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).
