July 7, 2023 — For his first single after releasing 2022’s River Wild, a bluegrass-focused collection that featured charting singles and fan favorites like “I Am The River Wild” and “Once You’re Gone,” Organic Records’ Jeremy Garrett returns to the more intimate, more adventurous approach of 2021’s Wanderer’s Compass — this time embodied in a distinctive cover of Swedish singer-songwriter José González’s 2007 entry, “How Low.”
Featuring a guest appearance by Bonnie Sims, a Colorado neighbor who’s also the face and voice of YouTube viral sensation Everybody Loves An Outlaw, “How Low” departs from the original from its opening notes, which adds a haunting fiddle and banjo figure to González’s propulsive guitar groove. The contrast deepens asGarrett and then Sims work their separate ways through the opening verses in well-matched, keening tenors before joining together to harmonize the song’s dire prediction:
Someday you’ll be up to your knees
In the sh*t you seed
All the gullible that you mislead
Won’t be up for it
A typically searing Garrett fiddle solo follows, Sims returns to offer the bleak lyric coda, and the track wraps up just a few seconds short of the laconic 2:40 of the original.
Says Garrett, “‘How Low’ is a cover of a solo artist named José Gonzalez. He describes the song as being about ‘mindless consumerism.’ I fell in love with the vibe this song encompasses and had a vision to see what it would be like to produce the song as a bluegrass-type ensemble piece. I brought in a couple of special guests for this one — Bonnie Sims of Bonnie and Taylor Sims, Everybody Loves An Outlaw and Big Richard is my singing partner, (and she tears it up!), and I also had Ryan Cavanaugh guest on banjo. I hope you dig it!”
Listen to “How Low” HERE.
“How Low” is streaming in Dolby Atmos spatial audio on Apple Music, TIDAL and Amazon Music. Dolby Atmos is a sound experience you can feel all around you. Familiar from its “surround sound” application in thousands of movie theaters” Dolby Atmos reveals “depth, clarity and details like never before.”
About Jeremy Garrett
Jeremy Garrett is known as an innovative fiddle player, expressive singer, and soul-searching songwriter in the GRAMMY Award-winning band, The Infamous Stringdusters, who broke onto the national scene in 2007, scooping up 3 International Bluegrass Music Association awards, including Album and Song of the Year. Since then, the group has become a national ambassador for progressive bluegrass, playing to club, theater, and festival audiences around the country.
To the fans of the Stringdusters, Jeremy is known as “G-Grass” or “Freedom Cobra” for his dynamic stage presence. When he is not touring with The Infamous Stringdusters, he turns his attention to his solo show, wowing listeners by using electronic effects to layer and loop multiple instruments and vocals. Jeremy also performs in all-star line-ups ranging from funk music to traditional bluegrass.
Jeremy has a more intimate side as a songwriter and has a broad catalog of originally crafted songs. He has contributed several songs to the Stringdusters, including the title track for their 2014 album “Let It Go,” winning first place in the Folk category for the 2014 USA Songwriting Competition. His songwriting collaborations include Darrell Scott, Oliver Wood (of The Wood Brothers), Jon Weisberger, Josh Shilling, Becky Buller, and more.