The first time Charlotte Varnum heard what her own music sounded like with the backing of a full band, it was like a light bulb flicked on in her head.
Varnum was no stranger to her own sound, having written and performed with her acoustic guitar and her voice for years, but her time at the Contemporary Music Center in Brentwood, Tennessee in 2018 challenged her to take her craft to the next level. She had to write, record a demo and perform every week, and that led to her first performances with a band.
She was hooked. The bluesy, country-tinged rock she’d long enjoyed suddenly manifested in a way she could call her own, and she suddenly knew she’d found her calling.
“It was so fun and exciting,” Varnum said. “I love the rhythm of songwriting. I had never heard my sound played out in a full band before. I’ve played consistently at Krazy Kup but it was just me and my guitar. That was the first time I heard my music and what it could be.”
Varnum relocated to Nashville after that and never stopped writing, eventually putting together enough material between her original songs and covers for a series of EPs that have now come together as one album: her self-titled debut, which was released on all major music streaming services on April 16. She’s excited to finally be able to share the biggest, most polished realization of her Americana sound with the world.
The seven-track album was put together in a way that calls back to vinyl’s heyday in the 1960s and 70s. Her EPs — titled Side A and Side B for that reason — follow a format typical of the classic records she grew up with, though the current digital-only format means you won’t have to flip the record over to finish it.
“Side A is more more folk rock, full band, electric,” Varnum said. “Side B has more of a stripped-down, acoustic feel. Side B is the softer side once you’ve gotten to know me through Side A.”
Storytelling is Varnum’s top priority. Whether it’s a look at a diary page from her own life or an account of events through the eyes of a fictional narrator, Varnum writes with the intention of drawing the listener into a compelling tale they can relate to. It’s a quality she always loved about the music of Billy Joel and Bonnie Raitt, and the latter’s music at large was a major influence on the recording of the album.
Varnum’s cover of John Prine’s “Angel of Montgomery,” for example, was actually inspired by Raitt’s own cover of the song. Varnum recorded her cover well before work on the album began and it drew the attention of Tennessee-based producer Erika Nalow — who basically cold-called Varnum out of the blue about recording with her. That led to the creation of Varnum’s first EP, and the two continued to work together from there on.
“I listen to a lot of Bonnie Raitt and hers was the first version I heard of that song,” Varnum said. “I used it for a senior showcase project I had and one section of it was covers of artists and songs that influenced me. I had to use that song in that project. That was one of the songs that caught Erika’s attention. I just love the writing of that song, and John Prine in general was such a brilliant writer. It’s one of those songs where you can feel what this person’s going through. It’s deeply empathetic and I’m interested in stories like that.”
Christianity also influences Varnum’s writing. Her biggest single, “Samson,” uses references from the Biblical story of Samson and Delilah in its telling of a relationship that appears doomed to end when the song’s Samson drives his new “Delilah” to leave him. In a twist, the narrator is later revealed to be a former lover of his.
“‘Samson,’ that one is just a story,” Varnum said. “I thought it was an interesting premise and melody, and I built these characters. I started that one in college many years ago and I just had the first couple lines. I moved to Nashville and was trying to get in the habit of writing more consistently. I was into that blues-rock groove at the time and I thought it was a fun twist on the story. I feel like in the story of Samson and Delilah, Delilah is the villain and we sort of forget the role Samson had to play in all of that. In any dysfunctional relationship like that, you have to look at both sides of it. Me, as the speaker in the story, I was wounded by him. The twist came in the end that I was involved with him. At first it was the story of watching it happen to this person, watching Samson’s life fall apart because of his choices, and then at the bridge I thought it would be interesting to make me a part of the story as well.”
“Samson” was released as a single on March 5 and has received radio airplay in both the United States and Canada’s Cashbox Radio.
The album was recorded in Nashville with the Brooks Hubbard Band, produced by Nalow and engineered by Phillip Smith.
You can stream Varnum’s debut, EPs and singles on Apple Music, Spotify and all major services. A physical album release is in the works and Varnum said she expects it to be ready for release “in the near future.” Visit charlottevarnum.com for more information and to follow her on social media.