Ahead of their C2C performances comes the new single from Two Ways Home - "Signals In The Smoke". No-one has done more to bring Americana artists both known and unknown to the Metropolis than TWH each month via "The Round Up" and the invite to C2C is great to see, if perhaps a little overdue.
What could be more Americana than smoke signals the staple of any good Western, where they always seemed so mysterious and foreboding. It offers Isy and Lewis the chance to play with plenty of fire imagery and they have more or less emptied their thesarus to great effect to tell this tale of parted lovers who may yet have a chance to get back together. It also offers the opportunity for a great cover shot where the smoke, caught in a white light works extremely effectively.
Unusually the song starts at the chorus, with TWH duetting as the parted lovers over a strummed acoustic guitar, - each thinking the same - there's an acknowledgment that things went wrong but equally there is the wish that there might be a second chance.
"Pouring water over ashes to smell the smoke
When the fire had burned out long ago
There's still more heat in the heart you broke .. and hope
So I'll keep sending you a signal in the smoke"
With "Smoke Signals" being a metaphor for "communication" the opening verses finds the two protagonists admitting that there's a problem, first Lewis
"Fire we're on fire I'm fanning down the flames but they're rising higher?"
then Isy
"You've been tearing up the bar like nuclear fission"
It's very much the audio version of a split screen video as we separately hear them thinking the same things and later although stil separate they start to both sing the same lines
"I think this is over - I wish you'd come over
If we're really over - can we just start over?"come to early
It then moves to an acceptance that maybe the decision to part might have been a little hasty - but how to undo what has been done?
Lying, I've been lying - I told myself we're over but I keep on trying
Questions I've got questions what do I have to do to get your attention"
The bridge seems to be the reconcilliation as it ends in a delightful harmony
If this is the end then I won't go quietly
I hope that you wouldn't - hoped you'd hold on tightly"
especially the way they linger and extend the word "tightly".
Musically it is pretty minimal, just some percussion and a range of guitars forming most of the background that the song requires with Lewis & Isy taking centre stage with their respective points of view. In many ways it is slightly unconventional, that additional "and hope" in the chorus just slightly jars the listener into paying more attention as it breaks where you think the chorus might be going, and it ends on a quiter note with differences hopefully resolved. It all goes to make this a great little single that we look forward to be seeing sung to the masses at C2C.
Pre-Save Link: https://show.co/6kkFrGj
Two Ways Home can be found at C2C as shown below.
10th March – C2C Country to Country Festival – O2 Arena (Wayside Stage 14:40)
11th March – C2C Country to Country Festival – O2 Arena (Icon Stage 11:40)