Community-driven media: Log in or Visit
0 |

Premiere: Chris Wilcox – “Rising River”

This morning, Charleston’s newest resident Chris Wilcox released a new single called “Rising River”, which we’re happy to premiere on Extra Chill. The song is the last in a series of singles released over the past year that will soon be part of an EP called Into the Blue.

Initially recorded in Wilcox’s former home of Nashville, “Rising River” was co-written and produced by Aaron Utterback of Human Resources. The final vocal production was done at Coast Records, and included Shane Williams and Warren Bazemore of Finnegan Bell coming in to add some gospel-style background vocals.

According to Wilcox, he brought four bottles of whiskey to Coast Records that day as gifts for the gentlemen who worked with him on the song. By the time they left the studio that afternoon, two of the four bottles were gone, and the night became a story much like one that the drunken backwoods character depicted in “Rising River” might tell.

“Not far from home in Western Carolina / I’m banned from every bar in East Tennessee,” he sings. “I’m laying down my problems in the bottle that’s behind them / I don’t think I’ll ever shake the need.”

Wilcox sings about a man who resigns himself to repeat the same booze-fueled mistakes time and time again, all in the name of his quest for freedom.

“It’s from the perspective of a guy who just can’t get out of his own way,” he explains. “He wants to be better, and he knows the shit that he does is bad, but he just keeps doing it anyway. He’s drinking more to deal with the problems, so it’s a never-ending torpedo.”

Some may be familiar with this never-ending torpedo, and how difficult it can be to make a change. Others may simply raise a glass to good country music.

The recording sessions for “Rising River” also produced a bluegrass version of the song, which we hope to hear as a B-side on the upcoming EP.

Stream the new track below.