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“Do you ever have one song that just really does it for you and puts a smile on your face, and you play it over and over and over again?”
That’s the question Lilly Winwood is asking on ‘Keep It Spinning’, the latest cut from her forthcoming album, Talking Walls; a loving tribute to all those songs that have made her the artist she is today.
The daughter of rock legend Steve Winwood, Lilly grew up surrounded by music and splitting her time between the UK and Nashville, with the family often visiting her mother’s hometown.
“It’s hard to translate to people what my upbringing was like,” she says. “I feel like I grew up in mid-air, between Nashville and the UK, but I have known Nashville my whole life.”
After moving to Music City for good when she was 18, Winwood gravitated towards East Nashville, forming creative partnerships with locals like Boo Ray and Allen Thompson and putting out her Silver Stage EP in 2017.
Brought up on songwriting from an early age, there’s always been an easy sophistication to her music. On her debut album, Time Well Spent, it felt like she’d perfected her luscious soft country sound, but she felt burnt out by the gruelling recording process during the pandemic, making it feel more like an end than a beginning.
She took a break from it all, taking a job in a restaurant to pay the bills. Taking that step away and getting sober turned out to be the inspiration she needed and she’d come home from work at 3am, with an apron full of quickly scribbled song ideas.
Holler is thrilled to be exclusively premiering the new single ‘Keep On Spinning’, ahead of the album's release later this month.
'Keep It Spinning' is a fangirl ode to all those songs that have saved her over the years. “I’ll keep chasing that song that gave me that feeling / when I thought all I had was lost”, she sings as the guitars swirl around her.
With its warm 70s soft rock sound and poppy hooks, it sounds like Linda Ronstadt on a road trip with the Go-Gos, bringing to mind the country-tinged glossy pop of recent albums from Pearl Charles and Lola Kirke.
The broad nature of her music makes complete sense when you learn of Winwood's own tastes; the songs that do it for her are as eclectic as the sounds of her own music. ‘In Chains’ by War On Drugs, ‘Riverbends’ by Cyrena Wages, ‘Good Days’ by SZA, ‘Running Away’ by Joey Dosik, ‘Drown Me by John Craigie’ and ‘Morning Man’ by Darrell Scott are just a few of the songs that she has on repeat.
“They say that musicians can’t always be music lovers, but that by far is not the case for me”, Winwood explains. “I think a lot of music has saved me in so many ways and this song recognizes that”.
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Lily Winwood's new album, Talking Walls, is set for release August 25th. Holler is exclusively premiering the new single, 'Keep It Spinning', above.
