Letitia VanSant Previews New Album ‘Circadian’ With Truth-Seeking ‘Something Real’ [Exclusive]
Letitia VanSant is ready to share new music. The Baltimore, Md.-based singer-songwriter has a brand-new album coming in early 2020, and she's giving The Boot's readers a first taste of the project with the music video for her song "Something Real."
With a simple, folksy melody and VanSant's light vocals, "Something Real" is a track about using music to tell your truth, regardless of the circumstances. "The hotel lobby or the Grand Ole Opry, I only want to sing the truth / I don't care who's listenin' out there, I only wanna sing with you," VanSant sings in the song's chorus. "Someone give me a song to sing that sounds like something real / I want the world to know exactly how I feel."
VanSant wrote "Something Real" while attending Texas' Kerrville Folk Festival shortly after the 2017 death of legendary songwriter Jimmy LaFave. "Although I never met him, people were singing his songs around campfires, and I was amazed to feel how much his energy was still moving through the world," VanSant recalls to The Boot.
"The clouds of my pessimism parted," she adds of that moment, "and I took in how miraculous it is that we are alive on a planet with water and air that we can vibrate to make music."
For her music video for "Something Real," directed by Karl McWherter, VanSant headed to a spot on the Chesapeake Bay, near her grandfather's old house. "I felt profoundly grateful that we have the opportunity to gather together with friends to sing in any form," she reflects. "So I created the video with that kind of joy in mind."
An acclaimed songwriter who won the prestigious Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Competition, VanSant headed to Nashville to make her sophomore record. In February, she will release that album, Circadian, which follows 2017's acclaimed Gut It to the Studs. Produced by Neilson Hubbard, the project doesn't shy away from political topics, including tracks written about surviving sexual violence and her father's battle with cancer related to Agent Orange exposure.
Circadian is due out on Feb. 21. Visit LetitiaVanSant.com for more details.
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