Hit songwriter Nicolle Galyon leans into her artistic career on her forthcoming EP, second wife, available Friday (October 13). The six-track EP includes five songs written by Galyon and her husband, Rodney Clawson. The project follows Galyon’s 2022 debut album firstborn.
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“second wife shows the side of me that is flawed, self-deprecating, understated, silly, and yet unconventionally traditional,” Galyon said in a press release. “The side of me that fell in love at 21. That’s a side of me that I don’t always show—the married one. If firstborn was a memoir, second wife is more of a fun adventure in real-time.
“The thing about second wife is even the title itself is imperfect,” she added. “That’s probably my favorite thing about being one. The illusions (and delusions) I had as a firstborn were gone once I became one.”
[RELATED: Guest Editor: Nicolle Galyon Shares Path to Becoming a Songwriter]
The EP arrives on Galyon and Clawson’s 16th wedding anniversary. Find a complete track listing below. Galyon also serves as the guest editor for American Songwriter’s September/October issue where she shares her songwriting journey and some tips she learned along the way.
“These days when asked, ‘What is your role in songwriting?’ The answer is: I’m the architect,” she writes. “My role comes in the moment right after you’ve committed to a title or a place to build from, and you have to figure out exactly HOW we are going to build this. And for me, those answers are endless. Oftentimes, that makes me exhausting to write with because I will keep tearing up the rough drafts of potential commercially viable hooks that could totally work. (Thanks for the patience, fellow co-writers.)
“To me, a title like ‘Automatic’ or ‘Tequila’ is merely an address. A cool destination, but what are you building there, and how is that little house going to look when it’s done?” she asks. “Is a title like ‘Automatic’ a track-heavy, barn-burner using a metaphor about how a truck drives? Or is it a nostalgic, acoustic-driven introspective life song? And is ‘Tequila’ a straightforward summer anthem with an 808 and fiddles? Or is it a classic tale about longing and not about tequila at all? This is my play. Doodling the frameworks of a song from the inside out, before a single lyric or chord goes on the page.”
Second wife track list:
1. “jo.” (Rodney Clawson, Nicolle Galyon)
2. “prenup.” (Rodney Clawson, Nicolle Galyon)
3. “the grain.” (Rodney Clawson, Nicolle Galyon)
4. “rooms.” (Rodney Clawson, Nicolle Galyon)
5. “texas hold ’em.” (Rodney Clawson, Nicolle Galyon)
6. “under the rainbow.” (Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg)
Photo credit Claire Schaffer / Courtesy OH Creative
