Single Reviews

  TAYLON HOPE - Hometown Never Leave Me - Independent Release

When it comes to carving a path in country music as an independent artist, there’s no blueprint to follow. However, packing your life into a guitar case full of dreams and making the move to Nashville to immerse yourself in the incredible talent pool is a great launching pad.

That’s exactly what a then 12-year-old Taylon Hope and her family did when they left behind their West Jefferson, NC home in her pursuit of the neon lights of Music City.

Hope has since found her footing over the years, writing with the best of the best while maturing as an artist, songwriter, and into her young adult years, realizing now that while she might have left her hometown, her hometown hasn’t left her.

“Hometown Never Leave Me,” her first release since “Picket Fence,” has been hanging around her catalog for a bit but is one that’s held a special place in her heart since she first co-wrote it with Kristi Manna and Bill DiLuigi:

“There is always a huge part of me that loves the peace of the mountains, that loves talking to people on the side of the road that I know, and going into the old beautiful church at the end of my Nanas road to pray. This song is so special to me, and I hope others can relate to it, knowing that no matter where they might go, their hometown will never leave them,” she shares about the song.

The soft, melodic pace provides perfect accompaniment to the nostalgic aura as Hope tilts into the bends of her angelically guided tones with wavers of homesickness as she sings a heartfelt love letter to her hometown.

Tapping into the everyday reminders constantly swirling around her, from visiting someone else’s map dot town to passing a roadside church filled with praying people while country gold plays on the radio, she mentally revisits her porch lit upbringing with a promise to get back there as soon as she’s able. 

Belting into the chorus in what is not only a page turn of the photo album of her sparked memories but a spotlight of her incredibly gifted range and astonishing vocal control, Hope sings with hometown pride:

“And when I see people talking

in the middle of a backroad somewhere

Makes me wanna find the time to 

Stick wildflower up in my hair

Even if I put wings on my roots 

A thousand miles on these boots beneath me

(my hometown) hometown never leave me”

With so much acclaim already igniting a substantial amount of buzz around her, Taylon Hope’s star is continually rising with each songwriter round she plays and each new song she releases. By hitting the right heart chords with the listener who’s missing their own hometown, or even for those who are just waxing nostalgic on the simple ways that life used to be, “Hometown Never Leave Me” tugs heartstrings in all the right ways.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

 

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