"When you're Liz Rose you're just thinking in country songs all the time": Lola Kirke On Writing a Song with Mother-Daughter Country Songwriting Duo Liz and Caitlin Rose

"I think it's the second song they've ever written together," Lola Kirke tells us, sitting downstairs in the 'Blue Basement' at London's Third Man Store. "But we'll go with first. Just go with first."

Whether it was the first or second doesn't really matter, what's important is that when Lola Kirke was pulling together songs for her latest album Trailblazer, she was able to bring mother-daughter country songwriting duo Liz and Caitlin Rose together in a writing room to co-write her instant country classic tear-in-your-beer honky tonk ballad 'Hungover Thinkin.''

"We were in Liz's living room," she says. "I have written with Caitlin, and Caitlin is one of those people that's just such a generous connector of people. She was like, 'We have to write with my mom.' And I was like, 'Yeah, that would be great, if you can make that happen.' And then, next thing I know, it was three months later, and it was happening."

Known separately as songwriters, Liz Rose became perhaps best known for her work with Taylor Swift, co-writing 17 of Swift's officially released songs including 'You Belong with Me,' 'All Too Well (Taylor's Version' and 'White Horse,' which won them a Grammy Award for Song of the Year, but in recent years, writing regularly alongside Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey as The Love Junkies, she's made a name for herself with big songs for Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood.

Her daughter Caitlin Rose - who was once described by Holler as being "the spiritual godmother of anti-country" for the pivotal role she played in East Nashville's flourishing alternative scene in the late noughties - is a singer and songwriter in her own right. Her effortlessly cool take on classic country predates more recent records by Maggie Antone and Lauren Watkins by a good ten years at least, and she also co-wrote 'Hurtin' (On the Bottle)' with Margo Price for her debut album, Midwest Farmer's Daughter.

As often seems to be the case with Lola Kirke - who dressed up in a Bud Light bottle costume to promote her '241s' single and appears on the cover to Trailblazer in full clown make up - the moment had a touch of screwball comedy to it.

"I showed up to Liz Rose's house and I wanted to be very proper and on time, and I was so on time that I was 45 minutes early," she laughs. "Which is so weird. Never be early, especially at a house. At a house, rude."

"Someone let me into the house too," she adds, explaining that Caitlin Rose had already let her know she was running late and Liz Rose had apparently had a big night the night before. "So, I was just kind of standing there."

Eventually she decided it would be less awkward if she left.

"I was like, 'You know what, I'm gonna go and I'll come back,'" she says. "So, I finally went and came back and then they both kind of materialized, and Liz was just like, tired, and she was like, 'I'm sorry, y'all, I'm just hungover thinking right now' and we were like, 'We're writing that song.'"

"I guess When you're Liz Rose you're just thinking in country songs all the time."

'Hungover Thinkin'' is taken from Lola Kirke's latest album Trailblazer, available now on One Riot Records

Lola Kirke

Artist