One week Till Mountain Honey…
Photo by Chuck Rohmann Cover Art: David Fisher
Where did summer go?! I feel like just yesterday I was setting the date for my song Mountain Honey to be released and it felt so far away. Now we’re a week out!
I haven’t written a blog since my announcement of my NEW EP BEST YEARS! … Can you tell I’m a bit excited?
If this is the first time you’re hearing about it (I won’t judge you for living under a rock) I’m releasing a self funded, 6 song EP titled Best Years on October 27th. The lead single “Mountain Honey” is coming out August 11th! Please, please, please go pre-save it on Spotify using this link MOUNTAIN HONEY PRE-SAVE. I do indeed have more I wanna talk about but, if you don’t mind real quick letting me self promote for two seconds?
A lot of people have had issues pre-saving so I’ll walk you through it. If you have a Spotify account, when you click the link above it will prompt you to sign into your Spotify account (it’s free to create one if you don’t have it) and it will add Mountain Honey to your library the day of the release. Apple Music doesn’t have a pre-save option unfortunately so if you select to log in through that, Mountain Honey won’t be available. You can do a pre-order purchase in the iTunes store. Just look up Carson Hill Mountain Honey in the iTunes Store (not Apple Music app) and you can purchase it there!
Mountain Honey Contest:
I’m doing a little contest where I’m randomly selecting a person from the pre-save list on August 11th to send a free Carson Hill Music T-Shirt! If you want to enter, create a Spotify account and pre-save Mountain Honey using THIS LINK!
Thank you to everyone who has made the effort to pre-save Mountain Honey. I know it can feel complicated but the 5 minutes it takes to pre-save on Spotify helps me so much. I’ve said this a lot on my social media, but when you pre-save my single it tells Spotify’s algorithm that it’s a popular song which in turn helps me get on more Spotify playlists to be discovered by more people.
Okay. I’m done with the self promotion. Now for the life update/real talk.
Releasing new music is hard and it gives me anxiety.
I’m sure thats really odd to hear considering I’ve chosen to follow this path and pursue this dream. Here’s the thing - the making of the music is GLORIOUS. The joy I felt in the studio when these songs started coming to life compares only to the actual act of writing them. That magical feeling when something just clicks. The laughs had when something just doesn’t. That process is my favorite thing in the world. The releasing it… not so much….
You know that feeling you get when you’re scrolling through social media and you start comparing your unfiltered bits of life to other peoples filtered bits of life? It’s the same thing for musicians, artists, and songwriters. I have some friends who have had a million streams on their songs or a flawless music video that’s played on CMT. Some have sold out release shows in Nashville or are going on tour to promote their releases and projects. I have some friends who have managers and agents that push them like crazy and I have some who have done all the work themselves and it’s paid off. So it’s really easy to fall into this trap that I have to keep up with them. As someone who is introverted by nature (I’m sure that shocks some haha) I have such a hard time trying to do all the social media things that are required of artists these days.
Working on music is what feeds my soul. Content creation for tiktoks, youtube, facebook, instagram, twitter (now called X? strange…), reels, email lists and every other new thing that pops up is not. It should be one of the best times for artists and songwriters to get noticed with social media making discovering independent artists easier than ever before. On the flip side there’s more people trying to do it than ever before. I don’t have it in me to chase trends and try to make a video go viral by any means necessary. I want my music to stay true to me and real.
That being said, it’s been a struggle as my release gets closer. I’ve always had a fear of missing the mark by a centimeter. The music business is definitely not for the faint of heart. I’m emailing a million people a day who write music blogs and reviews. I’m working on editing a video as we speak. I’m also planning a release party for the entire EP. Needless to say, I’ve had a hard time sleeping because I can’t turn my brain off. My to do list is on replay all the time.
So, while I battle this fear that no one will truly care about this music and it will just be added to the millions of other undiscovered artists, I show up and do a little of what I can every day and trust God to do the rest.
I am really excited for those of you who comment, share, and support any way you can to hear these songs. I think you’re really going to love them. I have come to the conclusion that even if no one listens, these songs came to me in a time I needed them. They were written because they’re what I needed to hear. Of course I want other people to love them as much as I do, but honestly, I feel like God sent them to me, for me. And maybe they can be for someone else too.
So as we count down 7 days until Mountain Honey is out in the world and I face my fears, I just want to say thank you to the person reading this. Whether you’re a new supporter or old friend, I’m glad you’re here on this journey with me.
Your love is sweeter than mountain honey.
Here we go…
xx Carson
Mountain Honey Credits:
Produced and Mixed by Keith L. Harris
Mastered by Joe Causey at Voyager Mastering
Engineered by Thomas Dulin at The Planetarium
Drums and Percussion: Cory Williams
Bass: Richie Brinsfield
Guitars: Kris Donegan
Guitars, Keys, Percussion: Keith L. Harris
All Vocals: Carson Hill