Anytime you have the chance to write with Jeff Hyde (Eric Church, Nikki Lane, Charlie Worsham), you do it. Bluegrass virtuoso and award-winner Becky Buller ─ also a pillar of The First Ladies of Bluegrass, alongside Alison Brown, Sierra Hull, Missy Raines, and Molly Tuttle ─ once again links up with Hyde, as well as John Pennell (Alison Krauss), to write “You Come Around.”
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“When I told you how I felt / And you didn’t feel the same / I thought someday maybe you would come around,” sings Buller, lamening unrequited love. “I couldn’t help myself / Kept searchin’ for a way / To change your mind and make you come around.”
Banjo and violin intertwine around grave emotions ⏤ erupting into a ravaging whirlwind on the chorus. “You keep comin’ around and around / Rollin’ through my mind,” she laments. “Like a tumbleweed on fire / Burnin’ a path a half-mile wide / Through the dry West Texas plains / Of my broken heart and soul.”
“Jeff brought this idea to our writing session that day. [It’s] always an honor to write with these two masters,” Buller tells American Songwriter. On the recording, premiering today, Buller enlists accomplished singer-songwriter and musician Ronnie Bowman, famously known for his work in The Lonesome River Band, as her duet partner. In addition to his bluegrass work, numerous country artists, including Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, and Lee Ann Womack, have all recorded many of his originals.
“Ronnie is one of my favorite voices in all of bluegrass music,” adds Buller.
Bowman’s reedy tenor perfectly balances Buller’s more lilting, ethereal tone. Bowman takes the lead on the second verse, relating the romance from his point of view. “Someone said you made a deal / With that chilly eastward wind / And it wasn’t likely you’d come back around,” he sings. “Truth is my fate is sealed / It’s never gonna end / Time and again you’ll always come around / ‘Cause they don’t realize / Every time I close my eyes.”
Buller re-emerges on the bridge. “There is nothin’ I can do or say / To make you stay away,” she sings.
“You Come Around” anchors Buller’s new record, Distance and Time, out everywhere this Friday (October 30). It was recorded at Dark Shadow Recording with long-time producer Stephen Mougin (The Rigneys, Bill Evans). With three previously released tracks, including “The Barber’s Fiddle,” which charted to No. 1 on Bluegrass Today and earned an IBMA nomination, the 13-track record continues demonstrating not only sharp musical charm but mass appeal.
Listen to “You Come Around” below.
Photo by Jason Myers
