Better get ready…
Wade Bowen recently dropped his latest album, The Version Of Me You Get, a 10-track album that’s been a long time coming.
The project was originally recorded in 2020, during the COVID pandemic and also following a period of losses and hardships in Bowen’s personal life. The result was a raw, gritty album that Bowen ultimately decided against releasing at the time – but after recently revisiting the album, he decided that the time was finally right.
From the first time I listened to the album, my favorite track on the project is a song called “Weight On the Levee.” Written by Wade’s longtime friend and producer Sean McConnell along with bluegrass legend Dan Tyminski (who’s obviously best known for “Man of Constant Sorrow”), “Weight On the Levee” is a gritty and powerful song about facing down struggles:
“I’ve been drinking too much trying to wash the trouble down
I’ve seen a little too much to think it’s gonna turn around
The devil’s in the details
Lord it looks like rain
Staring at the sky, waiting on a sign
Bracing for the hurricane”
It’s got a soulful, almost Chris Stapleton-like sound, one that really shows off Wade’s voice in a way that’s different from other songs on the album. And the swampy production reminiscent of some of the great music from Muscle Shoals is something that Wade credits to his producer and the song’s co-writer.
Speaking to Whiskey Riff about the song, Wade said that despite not being a co-writer, he was immediately drawn to “Weight On the Levee” after hearing it while working on the album:
“One of the advantages of having an amazing producer like Sean who’s also an amazing songwriter – I love to write everything that I can on a record, but if there’s songs that I hear that I love … if it’s songs that I wouldn’t normally write or songs that are different enough for me to go, ‘Oh ok, I think that’s cool, let me try that.’ … And this was one of them.”
As for what drew him to the song, Wade cites the timelessness in the message:
“I just thought it was an amazing song, and very fitting at the time and very fitting forever, the struggle of the world and struggle of good versus bad.”
Of course he did admit there was one downside to cutting the song:
“That was a tough one to sing.”
(If you’ve heard the song you’ll understand why, but Wade’s vocals really ended up shining on the final product).
Tyminski ultimately ended up joining Wade on “Weight On the Levee,” and his vocals really add an entirely new layer to an already powerful song. And with “Weight On the Levee” serving as the leadoff single for the album, Wade and Tyminski have now teamed up for a visually stunning new music video for the song, filmed at McConnell’s Silent Desert Studios here in Nashville.
If you haven’t listened to the album yet, it’s well worth your time to check out. But in my opinion, there’s no better place to start than with “Weight On the Levee.”
