Valorie Miller’s first album in five years is prepped to grace our ears on 6 May. Only the Killer Would Know (Blackbird / Indie AM Gold) is rooted in as harrowing a story as its name might imply, though it’s also as idiosyncratically driven as can be. Inspired by the controversy of the Chemtronics site in Swannanoa, North Carolina, her scorching ‘Home of the Brave’ damns the superfund site for its role in mass-pollution and other issues that have sprung up surrounding it. Now, the singer-songwriter gets nostalgic with ‘Not For Nothin’. A bittersweet Americana tune, Miller’s new single invokes natural imagery in another way, interwoven in a family memory.
The folk artist recalls, “i wrote ‘Not For Nothin’ in the car one day when I was driving to see my dad, who was in a bad way. I passed over a flooded river and started bawling like a baby, and wasn’t sure why. The song came out all at once and was finished by the time I got to dad’s. I still don’t exactly know what it’s about, but the connective power of empathy is in there, and a conversation with the natural world is the framework. One thing I love about songwriting is, after I’m done writing them I often still feel like… hmmmm…what’s all that about? It’s a slow answer.”
Words by: Jonathan Frahm