EXCLUSIVE: Natalie Del Carmen Embraces her Inner Cheeseball on 'Leanne' from New Album Pastures

For all of its songs about heartbreak and romance, country music has always taken the time to celebrate the power of friendship too. Whether it was Kenny and Dolly singing about their lifelong partnership or Hank Williams Jr. with all his rowdy friends coming over, there's always room in country music for a song about just being good friends.

After grabbing our attention with her debut album, Bloodline, back in 2023, she completely stole our hearts with the 5-track Tandems EP that followed and ended up in our 10 Artists You Need to Know in February 2024. A string of singles over the last two years have cemented the Los Angeles songwriter as one of the most exciting modern-day folksingers around and on the eve of the release of her sophomore album, Pastures, we're delighted to give you a little tipple before toasting with a sneak preview of 'Leanne' from the album.

A warm, delicately strummed country folk song that perfectly captures the emotionality of a friendship that endures down through the years, 'Leanne' is typical of an album that picks at the little details of everyday life with an easy going almost Bacharach-like breeziness and manages to get to the very essence and depth of the human condition.

"My pup had passed, it was spring anew," she sings on 'Leanne.' "You brought cactus solace / A pot in bloom that said, 'Rest In Peace,' and I think I knew that my dog had died with love from you"

"So many of my early releases felt like put-downs and excuses to be bitter," Del Carmen says about the song. "It quickly started to matter more to me to figure out how to write songs about things that actually matter: family, friendships, the pressure to measure up in society. Truthfully, I started to criticize my own writing when I discovered Izaak Opatz. He’s effortlessly prolific and probably my favorite writer. He’s got an eye for life that feels impossible to pin down."

"'Leanne' came shortly after finding his music," she shares. "I wanted to learn how to write bittersweet and how to write fair. I wanted to pull the ego out of what I was doing prior. There was no better way to start that than with this track. Leanne and I have been friends so far back that it’s starting to become kind of blurry. Such a gift. She’s been owed a song a long time. The writing is a bit more cheeseball than other tracks on the record, but it’s to inspire people to hold onto who they can’t imagine their lives without. It was always bound to feel a little cheeseball."

Listen to 'Leanne' below

Raised on the pop radio of Los Angeles, Natalie Del Carmen is a peculiarly modern kind of country folk popstar, and Pastures is a coming-of-age classic that places her firmly at the forefront of a new wave of artists like Maggie Antone, Noeline Hoffman and Ken Pomeroy, who are putting a uniquely Gen Z spin on Americana.

"To me, a pasture sounds like an open place where you can go anywhere," she says. "Sometimes, that's the most freeing thing… but other times, it can be an open invitation for doubt. Sometimes, it can be easy to write about love, because it's so accessible. But I try to write about things that are harder to talk about, like failing, or trying to live up to society's expectations, or grief, or the pressure to amount. With Pastures, I'm letting myself be free to make the music I want to make… and I'm letting myself do it on my timeline."

Pastures is released on 30 January via Torrez Music Group.