IN March 2020 Melbourne-raised troubadour Jordie Lane faced storms on multiple fronts. Login or signup to continue reading First there was the literal storm as a deadly EF-3 tornado - which reached wind speeds of 266 kilometres per hour - ripped through the northern suburbs of Nashville, coming frightening close to Lane's home. The tornado killed five people, injured 220 and caused US $1.
5 billion in damage. "Our house was pretty much untouched, except for all of the paintings and picture frames on the walls all blew off with the air pressure that comes with a tornado," Lane remembers this week from Melbourne. "How close it was to us was quite a shock.
It was a EF-3 tornado, a real heavy big one. It was some four to five blocks wide in diameter and we were right on the tail of one of the edges of it. "The very next street from ours got completely bulldozed by this tornado.
" After spending a week without electricity, Lane, his partner and collaborator Clare Reynolds and their dog Tassie moved back home only and for the world to shut down the following day due the figurative storm that was the COVID-19 pandemic. The confluence of the tornado and COVID left Lane dealing with an emotional storm as he became gripped with anxiety. A year on songs began to emerge which would form the basis of his album Tropical Depression , his first original studio release since 2018.
It sounds cheesy, but it's the metaphor of the storm brewing inside of you. "The album is where extreme weather and the inner [meet]," he says. "It sounds cheesy, but it's the metaphor of the storm brewing inside of you.
"That kind of forced my hand and I had to start dealing with it. This is all very much a personal journey for me to work on my own health, my mental health, so that's where these songs are at. "They're like questioning the world, my place in it and my responsibility to look after the planet and to look after myself.
" Lane have been producing his melodic brand of Americana-tinged folk since the release of his debut album Sleeping Patterns in 2006. After more than decade of touring and critical acclaim for his independently-released albums, Lane and Reynolds made the jump and moved to Nashville. While Lane has resisted the urge to follow countless others into Nashville songwriting workshops, living in the famed music city has done wonders for his song craft.
Tropical Depression is the strongest record of his career. The singles The Changing Weather and Biscuit House , the latter co-written with Reynolds, display a new-found pop nous mixed with soulful country crooning. The self-deprecating chorus of " You ain't no gun slinger baby/ You're a hipster eating gravy off/ A biscuit in a Nashville house ", is perhaps the best hook he's written and was almost left off the album entirely.
"Something that sounds catchy is always the songs that I go, 'I don't know'," Lane says. "Not that it's a commercial song, but something in me almost sabotages it." Other highlights are Blame Me If Your Want To and the second co-write with Reynolds, It Might Take Our Whole Lives .
"It's a song about a couple trying to make their way through, and in particular, looks at financial difficulties. That one is definitely autobiographical to both of us," he says. For the first time in his career, Lane has released Tropical Depression with the backing of a record label.
Lane hilariously signed his deal with ABC Music while sledding down a ski slope in Nashville. "I've been doing it independent for so long and I definitely wouldn't have been able to handle a label that was super overbearing or had me locked in for the rest of my life," Lane says. "I like to try new things and partly after the pandemic I've realised how lonely and isolating this business can be, at times, so it was looking for some support beyond what we've done before.
" Tropical Depression was released on Friday. Jordie Lane plays Qirkz In The Hunter at Abermain on September 5. Josh Leeson is an entertainment and features journalist, specialising in music, at the Newcastle Herald.
He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league. Josh Leeson is an entertainment and features journalist, specialising in music, at the Newcastle Herald. He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league.
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