HASTING & CO.

                                                               "Dip" 

                                                               Independent Release

They say that Nashville is a 10-year town, in that it takes nearly a decade for you to make strong headway as a songwriter/artist. Kate Hasting is just about at that 10-year mark, so it makes perfect sense that Hasting & Co. - her duo with Josh Beale – is starting to break out in big ways!

With a writing credit on their friend Priscilla Block’s “Wish You Were The Whiskey,” and their ultra-fun summertime single “SPF U” earning attention from the industry and fans alike, the duo now returns with their new single “Dip.”

The song, co-written by Hasting and Beale alongside Sarah Jones and Priscilla Block (the same writing team behind “Wish You Were The Whiskey”), continues to stamp home their signature catchiness, while it sees Kate Hasting tackling the leads this go round (as opposed to Beale who handled the duties on “SPF U”).

The bounce along groove of the guitar lick through the intro instantly makes you crank up the volume and sway along, as Kate Hasting slides in her slick vocals and begins to tell the story of knowing better than to give the guy with a “reputation” a chance, but uniquely not doing it in a way that has left her heartbroken but rather in a way that admits to herself, “yeah, I knew better than this.”

Lyrically centered in a tongue and cheek way on dip, or chew depending on where you’re located, she sings lines of how his “Copenhagen smile said everything,” she specifies a “wintergreen skoal ring” on his pocket, etc.

They use the chorus to focus on the why of the breakup as she sings of finding a phone number in his back pocket, and then cleverly flips the meaning of the word dip, from chew to him leaving, when she sings, “I should have known you’d dip.”

But the true essence of the song comes in the second verse when we see the guy trying to win her back, but this time around she shows that she’s smarter than to fall for him again when she sees the bed of his truck is full of empty cans and she tells him to grab his things, pack ‘em up, and head on out down the road.

Breaking out in Nashville’s music scene is no easy task, but there are several little things that an artist can do to stand out amongst the pack. “Dip” certainly has memorable lyrics, a catchy melody, and an outstanding vocal to boot, but it’s the little things that give this the extra flare that will make it stand out for the long haul.

Things like how when Hasting sings “And it tastes like Sh..” without completing the entire cuss word, it recalls “It Happens” from Sugarland,” and how when she sings of how he dipped so low, right after mentioning a banjo, Hasting drops her voice to a lower register and a quick pluck of the banjo is played to emphasize the point of the lyric line.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

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