Singer-songwriter Mon Rovîa’s debut album, “Bloodline,” chronicles his life from Liberia to Tennessee. His distinctive sound has been described as “Afro-Appalachian.”
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Y’all, we made it to Friday. It’s time to kick off the weekend with some new tunes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HEAVY FOOT”)
MON ROVIA: (Singing) Love me now, maintain me down. And the federal government staying on heavy foot, they usually tried to maintain us all down. No, they by no means going to maintain us all down.
KELLY: That is “Heavy Foot” from the debut album “Bloodline” by Mon Rovia. The Tennessee-based artist is initially from Liberia. His sound has been described as Afro-Appalachian. It is a distinctive type, which has attracted tens of millions of followers on social media. For this week’s New Music Friday section, we’re joined by Celia Gregory of WNXP in Nashville. Celia, nice to talk to you. Pleased Friday.
CELIA GREGORY, BYLINE: Oh, likewise, Mary Louise. So glad to be right here for this objective.
KELLY: So a mix of Liberia and Tennessee makes me suspect this artist has an attention-grabbing backstory. What’s it?
GREGORY: Oh, it’s, and the story is the entire purpose for this album. This artist was born in war-torn Liberia, adopted by U.S. missionaries when he was actually younger, moved round North America rather a lot in his youth and finally discovered a house right here in Tennessee, the place he nonetheless lives and makes music.
So he took on Mon Rovia as a stage identify in dedication to his house nation’s capital Metropolis, and this debut file actually begins there. You understand, it places us within the place he left as a younger boy earlier than carrying us by way of all these different geographies and communities that he remembers in actual vivid element.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL”)
MON ROVIA: (Singing) Heroine eyes, I am unable to see you behind my disguise, the gun strap and the boots that do not match proper. The children left to struggle the conflict once more.
KELLY: So let’s get into that sound. I simply described it as Afro-Appalachian, and I ponder, the place ought to we be listening for? The place do you hear the affect of each these locations on the album?
GREGORY: I do. I hear it within the rhythms and within the selections of instrumentation, proper? And to begin with, the readability of his voice begs you to hear intently, and you’ll hear every pluck of the guitar. It takes you on the journey with him. And I feel the instrumentation varies from sparse and folky. You may hear these traditions from West Africa and/or the Southeastern United States with ukulele, solo guitar. And it goes extra lush in components, together with a few of these stomp-and-holler sing-along tunes like “Discipline Tune” and “Heavy Foot,” which match him extra in fashionable Americana and even nation worlds. He truly simply performed the Grand Ole Opry for the primary time final yr.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FIELD SONG”)
MON ROVIA: (Singing) Attempting to hold on. Nonetheless acquired miles to go. Do not go forgetting on me. Do not go forgetting on me. Honey, depart a light-weight on, shining for the experience house.
KELLY: Love that one. That’s “Discipline Tune.” OK, the title of the entire album, although – “Bloodline” – what’s in that identify? How does it relate to the theme of the album?
GREGORY: Sure, on “Bloodline,” Mon Rovia enunciates his experiences being raised as a Black immigrant baby in a white non secular family right here within the States. And within the title monitor, he, quote, “offers with the tangle of the place and who I’m from.” And he sings with this choir accompaniment, got here a great distance, and I am unable to discover my bloodline.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BLOODLINE”
MON ROVIA: (Singing) Come a great distance, cannot discover my bloodline. My identify nonetheless ties my bloodline.
GREGORY: So the file highlights recollections of various environments from his rising up and grappling with this id, from a day on the soccer subject, which is basically form of shut in to someplace in Georgia. And as for the title of the file, Mon Rovia says, one’s ancestors, irrespective of the place you are from or why you got here to a brand new place, they, quote, “dwell in you and your selections and the way you give your self to the world.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BLOODLINE”)
MON ROVIA: (Singing) Name it my very own.
KELLY: Oh, it is stunning. Celia, thanks.
GREGORY: Thanks a lot for having me.
KELLY: “Bloodline” is the brand new album from Mon Rovia. It is out right now, and you’ll hear extra from WNXP’s Celia Gregory on right now’s episode of New Music Friday from NPR Music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BLOODLINE”)
MON ROVIA: (Singing) Play on, play on. Got here a great distance, cannot discover my bloodline.
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