There are a million country songs about life after finding true love, and a couple million more about losing true love. But Summerlyn Powers' shimmering "Always On My Mind" is about a different part of the journey. The folky tune centers on the search for "the one" and holding out hope for the day you'll look back and remember the moment you just knew you'd met your soulmate.
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Powers says the song, which she wrote with Avila Mauk and Sara Bares, was inspired by a "happy little melody" that came to her during her time studying abroad in London.
"My songs are most often born out of lyrical ideas, but 'Always On My Mind' is an exception to the bunch. Everything that this song is was born out of a guitar riff. I was studying abroad in London, and I came up with the happy little melody sitting in the kitchen of our overcrowded flat. I brought it into a co-write with Avila Mauk and Sara Bares, who I had never written with before, and they loved it. The lyrics started flowing, and we ended up writing a sunny country song 'across the pond,'" Powers tells Wide Open Country.
"To me, 'Always On My Mind' is a hopeful anthem about finding your person. It can be hard to hold on to the hope of finding someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, but I have this feeling that when I meet that person, I'll just know. I could be totally wrong, of course, but this song puts that feeling into action by showing us the joy on the other side. It looks back and says, 'I sure did look for you, but I've finally found you, and it feels like I knew you all along!' Whether this is a real-life narrative or something sung in blind faith, I hope everyone who listens will feel a connection to it."
Powers says the song also serves as a reminder not to lower your standards — a piece of advice she says is strengthened by her faith.
"I love the lyric in verse 2, 'Learned that a beggar doesn't make a wise chooser, I thought I had control, but I promise that we don't.' It talks about how we shouldn't lower our standards when we get impatient," she says. "We can't control these things. God's plans are just bigger than us, so you might as well try to go with the flow of things."
Listen to "Always On My Mind" below.
"The nostalgic sounds heard in this song can give listeners an accurate representation of what's coming next," she says. "Every track has a different flavor, but they are all meant to be encouraging messages wrapped up in an old-school-inspired but fresh-sounding EP. That particular combo, by the way, is largely because of my producer, Reid Sorel. He really does great work capturing that juxtaposition kind of sound."
Powers says she's influenced by '70s singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Carole King and John Denver as well as the reigning CMA Female Vocalist of the Year.
"I love how most of [Denver's] songs are about reflecting back on his life, like this one is," Powers says. "His lyrics are colorful, and his melodies are dreamy; I try to follow his lead in that. Another is Lainey Wilson; man, she's really doing a great job using these older sounds to tell new stories. It would be a dream to play with her one day."
