"Open your mind to it! Listen in a calm environment. Listen from top to bottom. I
hope you can learn a little more about me or maybe learn a little more
about you. We're all either trying to figure this thing out together or
just need a break from it all, so let me help you."When Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on the evening of September 26, 2024, it had to be upgraded to Category 4. With wind speeds up to 140 mph, the storm moved primarily over the states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina the following days. Torrential rain falls led to catastrophic flooding, an estimated damage of $88 billion and over 230 deaths. At the center of the path of destruction was the city of Asheville in North Carolina with a population of some 95,000.
Exactly one month later, on October 25, 2024, Lanie Gardner released her album entitled "A Songwriter's Diary" on Broken Bow Records. It is the debut album of the 25-year-old artist, who grew up in the tiny town of Burnsville, some 40 miles north of Asheville. Though based in Nashville now, her hometown plays an important role in the theme of the album.
"Knowing that where you come from and the experiences you've had -good and bad- shape who you are today," says Lanie Gardner in an interview with sweetyhigh.com. "With that confrontation and knowledge of yourself you can change anything you don't like about yourself or your life. The journey of that is terrifying but beautiful and so so worth it."
It is precisely this confrontation with her roots in a small town somewhere in North Carolina and the challenges of an grown-up (artist) life in the big city that she describes in the first song 'Somewhere, Nowhere In Carolina':
trying to find a reason
why picking up this guitar
has gotten to be so hard.
There was a time the sound of these strings
would fix just about anything.
Maybe I was naive,
maybe I was thirteen.
"I was defeated and wanted nothing more than to be 'somewhere' back home and 'nowhere' in my career," she shared in an interview about the emotions that gave rise to the song. "Today, I write songs for my fans, my friends and my family who pulled me through such a dark time. But that day… I wrote a song just for me."
Stylistically, not only this song, but also most of the rest of the project, in keeping with the title of the album, presents itself like one would imagine a songwriter's project to sound like. It is a thoughtful retreat that invites you to get involved with the lyrics and the subtleties of the artist's production and voice.
"I wanted to encompass the rawness and calmness of the Appalachian Mountains and its instruments that I so luckily got to grow up with," emphasizes Lanie Gardner. She therefore consciously leaves out the dramatic, pounding percussion of 'Blood Mountain' or the driving guitars of 'Daughter of a Gun' from last year (2023).
Only the spiritual journey of 'Lord Knows' uses more powerful production, emphasizing the intensity of hope and self-discovery. The bluesy 'Cry' stands out as well. Not least because of the disenchantment about a love that has found another partner. Therefore only the first verse shares some kind thoughts, before the full emotionality of disappointment breaks out:
Sure I got things I hope for you.
I hope she's pretty,
I hope you really think she's the one.
hope she deceives you.
I hope she breaks your heart.
Like you broke mine.
I hope she makes you cry.
Things get particularly personal with 'Letters To Home', where Lanie Gardner wants to reassure her parents that they don't need to worry and that she is doing well despite all the difficulties she faces in trying to be successful in life.
rest your head,
dream of fields of flowers instead.
Sleep now daddy,
close your eyes,
Letters to home say your baby girl's doing just fine.
In a more mystical way, Lanie Gardner deals once more with the theme of growing up and going out into the world on the final 'Neon Notions'. She tells the story in a minimalistic and yet authentic way, indicating that she is also talking about her own story:
west of where the sky and the river part.
At night she walks the edges of the meadow
and sings for the stars.
"A Songwriter's Diary" is so much quieter and more thoughtful than one might have expected from Lanie Gardner's previous releases. It is an exquisit album with 10 personal subjects, all of which -quite unusual these days- are written by herself without any co-writes. At the same time, it is a project with many subtleties. And after all it is the kind of diary that songwriters tend to lean on in order to articulate themselves.
Just as she puts it: "Words as poetry and combined with a rhythm and melody are how we express ourselves and cope completely with things. I believe you are born with this, and blessed with the ability to connect and understand the music within all of us."
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