Boy Named Banjo Shares Uplifting New Track “What Keeps Me Going”
Nashville-based band Boy Named Banjo has released their uplifting new track “What Keeps Me Going” via Mercury Records Nashville. Over tender, harmony-laced production, the quintet shares a positive anthem of gratitude that was written following what our world has experienced over the last several years.
“‘What Keeps Me Going’ is essentially our answer to the question, ‘What is important to us?’” shares banjo player Barton Davies, who penned the song with guitarist and harmonica player William Reames and Pat McLaughlin (John Prine, Loretta Lynn). “We wrote this song as we were coming out of the pandemic and reflecting on how that whole experience had shifted our focus. Like many others during that time, we found the most meaning from the simplest things – being outside, watching the sun go down, going fishing, and spending quality time with our loved ones. That’s what kept us going then and what keeps us going today.”
Reames adds, “The song highlights why we do difficult things – whether that is going to a 9-to-5 every day or covering miles in a tour van, the goal is the same: To enjoy life. We work hard to enjoy life.”
Davies continues, “The song sounds like it could’ve been written about 50 years ago, and I love that about it. It’s definitely got a bit of that Laurel Canyon folk-rock feeling to it, but with our contemporary BNB approach. I love the message of the song too. It just seems kinda timeless in the sense that I could look back on this song when I’m older and say, ‘Yep, I still feel that way.’”
“What Keeps Me Going” arrives on the heels of Boy Named Banjo’s Grand Ole Opry debut in March, a momentous milestone for the band that was documented over at People.com.
In a time when the popular choice is to chase the double yellow line down the road to country radio, Boy Named Banjo thrives on its fringes. The Nashville-raised five-piece is a fusion of contemporary country, Americana and folk-rock stacked on a foundation of bluegrass. The band, which has been together in some iteration since its members were in their teens includes Barton Davies (banjo), Ford Garrard (bass/standing bass), Sam McCullough (drums) Willard Logan (mandolin, acoustic/electric guitar) and William Reames (acoustic guitar/harmonica). Reames and Logan played in a middle school garage rock band together, but it wasn’t until Reames met Davies in high school that Boy Named Banjo started taking shape. Garrard and McCullough joined later and together the five guys comprise the band Boy Named Banjo that we know today.
At sold-out shows marked by audiences singing along with every word, Boy Named Banjo tells their stories with an incisive, emotional and roots-driven perspective. In 2020, Boy Named Banjo signed to Mercury Records Nashville and released their debut EP, Circles, the following year. The band spent 2022 on the road playing some of country music’s largest festivals including Dierks Bentley’s Seven Peaks and Country Jam and Kip Moore’s Fire on Wheels Tour, and made their CMA Fest debut playing at the Ascend Amphitheatre Nighttime Concert as well as a sold-out hometown show at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl. The group most recently released the tracks “Whiskey Dreams,” “Heart In Motion” and “Heart Attack,” which earned support from Billboard, CMT, MusicRow and more. Boy Named Banjo is currently prepping their next project to be released later this year.
