Rob Williams – “Sometimes It’s a Song” (audio) (premiere)

After fronting the band Joe Buck Jr. for a decade, Rob Williams has set off on his own as a solo artist, and his new album Southern FMwill be released on 14 December. As you can tell by the minimal acoustic arrangement of “Sometimes It’s a Song”, he’s stepped into the role as singer-songwriter-troubadour comfortably, as the song’s laid-back lonesome romanticism is too sweet to dislike.

“‘Sometimes It’s a Song’ is about a traveling singer/songwriter playing a string of shows far from home and thinking that he’s wasted another night being on the road,” Williams tells PopMatters. “I think every singer-songwriter must feel that way at some point. You pour so much of yourself into your songs and your performance and there are times when it seems like no one is listening. This particular night the singer notices a girl from the stage and wonders if she’s listening to the rain outside or to the song he’s playing. Later that night she makes it clear it was the latter.”

Pre-order Southern FM via Bandcamp.