Arden, North Carolina (January 22, 2021) — It’s been a long, hard road to success for North Carolina songwriter Aaron Burdett. Although he has an extensive catalog of critically-acclaimed recordings — not to mention his share of national song-writing competition honors — it took the recent success of his bluegrass-flavored “Rockefeller,” which climbed the charts and lingered there for most of 2020, to repay his persistence and make him a new discovery for roots music fans.
The same working-class sensibility and wry humor that animated “Rockefeller” pervades “Loser’s Bracket,” Burdett’s latest release for Organic Records. “I’m the kind of man that every woman wants,” the narrator claims over Burdett’s guitar and ringing mandolin from band member Daniel Ullom — before giving his own boast the lie as he adds, “And I’ve a mind to find one, when I sober up.” The lines gain added piquancy with bassist Kim France’s deftly-placed harmonies, leading into the song’s irresistibly hooky first chorus before guest banjo player Derek Vaden (Larry Stephenson Band) adds the last element to fill out the song’s now-grassy arrangement.
But even though the beginning of the choruses find the singer ironically confessing the limits of his aspirations — “the top of the loser’s bracket is as good as I’m gonna get” — the songwriter’s ability to find grace shines through by the end, as he recognizes his “hard times and good times [are] intertwined and yet, I count ‘em all as blessings and I’ll take what I can get.” The juxtaposition, given room to breath as Vaden and Ullom split a deliciously idiomatic solo section, is a quintessential slice of Burdett’ssongwriting, and of his down-to-earth approach to life.
“‘Loser’s Bracket’ is an unusual song for me, in that it came together without any trouble or extended effort,” Burdett notes. “Songs usually take me a long time to reason out and consider and edit and re-edit. I think I heard someone use the title phrase; I wrote it down and the tune more or less wrote itself. I gleaned the chorus from somewhere out in the real world and shook it a few times and the verses fell right out—no extras, just the right amount, from wherever it is that songs are born. This song might be a product of the same 1930’s or 1940’s character who inhabits the‘Rockefeller’ song, I’m not sure. Every song is different, and the most unique characteristic of this song is how it showed right up at my door and invited itself in.”
For long-time fans, “Loser’s Bracket” will be another welcome addition to his catalog — and for listeners who have only recently discovered his work, the new single serves notice that Aaron Burdett’s unexpected hit was no fluke.
Listen to “Loser’s Bracket” HERE.
About Aaron Burdett
Aaron Burdett’s lyrics are soul-touching, intelligent, witty, and poetic all at once, while his music style is a seamless blend of Americana, country, blues, bluegrass, and folk.
Aaron is listed as one of the Top 10 most important musicians of western North Carolina by WNC Magazine, alongside such greats as Doc Watson, Steep Canyon Rangers, and The Avett Brothers. He has also received critical acclaim as a songwriter, Most recently winning the grand prize in the folk category of the USA Songwriting Contest with “A Couple Broken Windows” from his latest album Refuge (2018). His new single “Rockefeller” is one of three finalists in the bluegrass category In the prestigious Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at Merlefest for 2020 (postponed until 2021).
Aaron was also the winner of Our State Magazine’s Carolina Songs Competition in 2012 with “Going Home to Carolina.” Aaron’s song “Magpie” won third place bluegrass song in Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at Merlefest in 2013. Over the years Aaron has been a finalist in numerous other songwriting competitions, including The Mountain Stage Songwriting Contest, The NC Songwriter’s Cooperative Songwriting Contest, and the Hank Williams Songwriting Contest.
As a child, Aaron discovered John Hiatt, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, James Taylor, The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, The Beatles, The Band, and Rickie Lee Jones on vinyl records in his parents’ living room in the mountains of North Carolina. As a budding guitarist and songwriter, he was drawn to powerful communicators of the time like David Wilcox and Tracy Chapman and John Gorka. In his late teens, he discovered John Prine on a cassette tape dug out of a workshop drawer filled with rusty sixteen penny nails on a Wyoming ranch. He re-discovered the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on that same trip in a second-hand store in Riverton, Wyoming.
In his 20s he was introduced to Doc Watson when he heard him play in the living room of an old farmhouse near Boone, North Carolina. That experience led him to Norman Blake, Tony Rice, David Grier, Tim O’Brien, Darrell Scott, and Gillian Welch.
Mix all those influences up, add time and pressure, seven full-album releases, thousands of live performances, and you get Aaron Burdett the songwriter and artist you hear today.
Drawing heavily on both the traditions of Appalachian folk music as well as nationally known songwriters, Aaron’s music gives voice to the small rural areas of the Blue Ridge Mountains while also speaking to the working men and women throughout the country.