Nashville's Bern Kelly spent three years honing in on a dense narrative style. In the end, he found complexity and nuance in the simplicity of everyday routine.
Videos by Wide Open Country
On the gorgeous new duet "Garage Sale," Elise Davis joins Kelly in a cathartic tale of finding post-breakup peace in a simple gesture.
With an impressive amount of detail for such a sparse tune, Kelly paints a sad portrait. The song's characters divorced back in 2006 after marrying as young kids. She then ended up having her own babies with a man who didn't do much right by her.
As the narrator pulls up to the house, she takes him back to the garage. There, she gifts him an old car and the former lovers split the difference on their emotional baggage. It's a wonderfully common concept, but the beauty comes in the way Kelly and Davis squeeze the emotion and tension out of the lines.
"There are a lot of ways to try to make peace or be forgiven for past transgressions," Kelly tells Wide Open Country. "And while the vehicle seems like a tangible one, it's meant to be much deeper than that."
Give a listen to the exclusive premiere of "Garage Sale" below.
