On the new video:
Mississippi-bred, Nashville-based artist Chelsea Lovitt has a familiar 2020 tale – and has a video she wants to release around Valentine’s Day for her song “State Of Denial.” There’s a pretty funny story here…”State Of Denial” is about being distanced from loved ones when you’re a touring artist, and the message still applies since distance is mandated and viruses are in the way.
Chelsea got a great deal from video guru Joshua Shoemaker (Nicole Atkins, Marcus King Band, Vanessa Carlton, and more), to shoot the music video for “State Of Denial” – he filmed her while she drove her band van around Nashville delivering flowers, making people happy while she’s singing about being separated from her loved ones. Then, two weeks before lockdown, Chelsea put out an album in what was supposed to be “her year,” with a tour planned that had to be canceled, like so many other artists. To add fuel to the dumpster fire that was 2020, Chelsea had arranged to sell her rustbucket van to help pay for this music video. On the way to the airport to meet the guy who’d bought it from her (who had flown in to drive back to his home state), it died. For good.
Chelsea Lovitt’s music is a fantastic blend of sass, swagger, and hip-shaking defiance..rock n’ roll and rockabilly, psychedelic country with the underlying lyrical rebellion of 60s folk. Every song on her latest record, You Had Your Cake, So Lie In It, is a sparkling gem – whether it’s sifting through the emotional storage facility of emerging adulthood or red wine-fueled philosophizing, Lovitt’s got the goods, and she’s got it in spades.
https://www.instagram.com/chelsealovitt/
Quote from Chelsea:
I wrote this song on a harmonica in a field in Delaware the month before going in the studio. It was 5 in the morning and I’d been listening to Dylan. I had ambitions and ideas for this record to be influenced by Blonde on Blonde of course, and since we were doing it on tape and in Nashville I’d been listening to that and Nashville Skyline obsessively. I wrote this when I was in love, after not ever really being in it. It examines psychological issues that maybe stem from being from Mississippi because for some reason we’re prone to be emotional hoarders and it’s hard to “sift through that pile” when it comes to letting go and living in the moment or especially being in love. The song reflects on what wasn’t love and what is and why sometimes it’s a bittersweet “can’t be,” because distance and/or your own neuroses get in the way.
Now distance is mandated and viruses are in the way.
And it’s kind of like the predicament we have on Valentines this year when we have to socially distance ourselves and a lot of lovers can’t be together, and maybe this year has been a soul distancing folks like me have actually needed to figure out and “sift through” our own internal crap and be better people. When else could we have done that in this fast-paced world? It’s also been a test of what it means to really love somebody, especially when you can’t physically be with them.
https://www.facebook.com/chelsealovitt
STATE OF DENIAL
Well I wasnʼt quite ready to live
I wasnʼt quite ready to live,
I wasnʼt quite ready to give,
You a try.
And I ainʼt never been ready to sift
Through that pile.
Cause baby I was born in a state that dug the ditch for denial.
I wasnʼt quite natural to give,
I wasnʼt quite certain Iʼd leave
or care if I died
But now Iʼd pay for your time if cost me every nickel or dime.
And I ainʼt never been ready to sift
Through that pile,
Cause baby I was born in a state that dug the ditch for denial.
I didnʼt cry cause I missed you
Itʼs cause I knew youʼd hurt me when youʼre gone.
When I have you in my arms it seems youʼd never cause any harm.
Baby I know you love me but your heart gets harder when your far.
And I ainʼt never been ready to sift,
Through that pile.
Cause baby I was born in a state that dug the ditch for denial.
Instrumental
Buy a house for a hundred dollars
50/50 make some kinda start.
For the first time Iʼd plant flowers and have some kinda yard.
But whatʼs in paying taxes on land when youʼre both so far?
And I ainʼt never been ready to sift,
Through that pile.
Cause baby I was born in a state that dug the ditch for denial,
Yeah baby I was born in a state that dug the ditch for denial.
https://twitter.com/chelseaolovitt
