Singled Out: Ian Abel Band's HOME

The Ian Abel Band recently released their new single "HOME," which blends Pink Floyd-style atmospherics with a raw honky tonk edge, and to celebrate we asked Ian to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

It's Honky Tonk, and it's Psychedelia. "HOME" started from a phone conversation with my friend Paul. I was literally standing in a corner market buying a cheap bottle of red wine and half jokingly said "I'm holding onto gas station red wine trying to make it to Friday"; he said "oh wow there's a line", and when I got home, I thought about that, A-LOT.

After a great deal of self-reflection, I grabbed my guitar and wrote what would become known now as "HOME." There is a slight key change between the verse and the chorus. The original chorus stayed in E Major and had more of a Zac Brown Band feel to it, but I didn't think that was powerful enough. I had been wanting to blend my influences of country and psychedelic/prog-rock, and when evaluating the lyrics of the chorus - "looking no worse for the wear..." & "I wish you'd been sober" - I thought that this would be the perfect time to try and blur those lines by making a dramatic shift and change the key to E minor.

When recording the song, I think I successfully took an even broader step past the normal framework of what people call "Southern Rock." The second verse has a full on Honky Tonk guitar equipped some nasty traditional style licks in between lyrics, and the bridge is full on Pink Floyd circa Dark Side Of The Moon. I've listened to a lot of music in my life, and I'm not sure I've heard anyone expand upon the chassis that The Allman Brothers & Lynyrd Skynyrd laid out; at least not like this.

The final touches on the record come from some impromptu riffing by the amazing Kayley Bishop. In my head, I see this song going on an extended jam at festivals and when I asked her if she could just give it a taste of what could be, as she stood there in the studio wearing an unassuming baggy t-shirt, leggings, comfy flip flops with a baseball cap on backwards, she said "I got you"; her version of "hold me beer." In the words of the Big Lebowski, her vocal contribution "really tied the room together."

Lastly, with the rise of AI, I feel it needs to be said: the album artwork is real. My friend Tim Austin is an esteemed racehorse trainer, and he lent me a thoroughbred for the cover. Yes, I can ride decently. No, I cannot rope. The haters will say it's photoshopped.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

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