Singer-songwriter Mark Erelli has constructed quite the resume over the years.  More notably, Erelli this year was nominated for the 2019 Americana Music Award for Song of the Year for “By Degrees,” a track he wrote that also features Rosanne Cash, Sheryl Crow, Lori McKenna, Anais Mitchell, and Josh Ritter. The profits for “By Degrees” were and continue to be donated to Giffords: The Courage to Fight Gun Violence, the organization founded by former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

Erelli has now returned with a new single “Her Town Now,” a song marks new terrain for the well-established musician.  Gone is the customary acoustic-focus and now comes a more rocking sound.  This development can be traced back to Erelli’s off-handed encounter with another musician in the West Coast.  “A few years back, Chuck Prophet and I found ourselves at an open mic in the middle of the woods in Oregon (don’t ask).” 

“The song sounds catchy and upbeat unless you have lived it—I have,” Erelli reveals.  Ripping out from the pages of how to tell stories from the greats such as Petty and Prine, Erelli’s single recounts the unraveling of a relationship and feeling like a displaced stranger in a place that was once so familiar.