Trent Summar, a Murfreesboro native from a long line of Tennesseans, looks back at his roots in the video for the first song from a new ep out today. His paternal grandfather, who appears in the video for “Country Every Day” was a horse trader in Murfreesboro and Summar’s cousin, a local farrier, is still using his grandfather’s blacksmith tools. After attending MTSU’s music business program Summar went on to be known as a purveyor of what he calls, “farm rock”. Starting with the band Hank Flamingo circa 1994. The New Row Mob formed in 2000 with a sound combining the deep roots of traditional country, heartland rock and as Summar puts it, “BBQ-eating, honky tonk jukebox country”. There are elements of Summar’s new home in California seeping into this music, but it would still feel right at home in those honky tonks. WMOT premieres the video for “Country Every Day” to coincide with today’s release of the five-song ep, I Might Get Used to California.
Summar reflected on the inspiration for this collection, saying, “I wrote this group of songs when we first landed in Carpinteria, CA, after a 3-month long trek moving out West. We left Nashville headed to California by rambling through North Carolina then Maine then Canada back down through Michigan and Wisconsin (you get the picture). I was loaded for bear with song ideas after all of those experiences, but it was our cabin at Rincon Beach that inspired a whole California vibe to this EP all its own. The bedrock to this group of songs is the title track, “I Might Get Used to California.” The EP was tracked and mostly finished at Lemontree Studios in Highland Park, California.” “Country Every Day” is the first release from the ep and of the song, Summar said, “The first track is a bit of tongue and cheekiness about how country I am. Me and my Nashville songwriting buddies used to kid around about this topic. There’s a muted vocal track over the bridge that just chants, “Country country country country etc.”
For the video, Summar added that it is, “made up of 8 mm film my dad shot in the 50's. Both sides of my family are in it. Woods and Summar families. There are even a couple future MTSU Masters/Grads in it. Ha!”
The New Row Mob has included Dan Baird of the Georgia Satellites, a Nashville resident for many years now and, from St. Louis also living in Nashville, Michael "Supe” Granda, founding member of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. The band on this track has electric guitar from Pat Buchanan, Ed Donnelly played acoustic guitar and produced the track with Summar and Keith Chagnon, fiddle from multiple IBMA award winner Michael Cleveland, Luke Adams on drums, bass from Ted Russell Kamp and that’s Adam Wright with the backing vocal.
Listen for “Country Every Day” on the Local Brew Daily, 6:30am and 6:30pm today at 89.5 WMOT or wmot.org.
"Country Every Day"
