“It’s an accidental love child,” says Nashville-based singer-songwriter Kate Tucker of Little Reader, her new and unexpected pop music collaboration with fellow songwriter and guitarist, Ross Flournoy, late of Merge Records bands The Broken West and Apex Manor. The duo’s debut album "The Big Score" (out May 19th, 2017) was produced by Mark Watrous of The Shins.
One album track, "Burn Eternal," is a perfect example of the duo's take on lighthearted fun for those who have fought-for perspective on what’s lighthearted and/or fun. Namely, it can take some heartbreak – a “heavy heart” – to know what feeling lighthearted even is. It's is a breezy, almost flouncy pop tune that, just when you think it’s a lark, sneaks up with the chorus “If you walk away, you’ll have a hole inside your heart, just like one in mine you made.”
Oh.
Ouch.
Didn’t know it was like that!
“Heartache is its own dark medicine and owning it can be surprisingly empowering,” Tucker confirms. “And The Pretenders is a great band.”
Okay, done deal!
In addition to working on their own projects, Tucker and Flournoy have both found success writing for others in recent years. If you’ve watched Jake Tapper’s CNN show, then you’ve heard Flournoy’s theme music, and Tucker has found herself on stage at the Sundance Film Festival for her work in film scoring and soundtracks. Between the two of them, dozens of television shows have used Tucker and Flournoy’s songs.
So, when these two met for the first time, in the hills over Los Angeles, where Memphis-born Flournoy now lives, it was merely to try writing together at the request of their publisher, or as Tucker jokes, “It was basically as blind a date as a co-write can be.” But, as we now know, the pair ultimately decided to take it all the way, and soon, Flournoy was in Nashville recording with Kate and her mates.
It’s a good thing. The songs on band's upcoming debut album "The Big Score" feel personal. Worn-in just underneath the freshness of their sound. "The Big Score" by Little Reader arrives May 19th, 2017.