Kameron Marlowe offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into some of the realities of a country music artist’s journey in his brand-new song, “Take Me Home (Voice Memo).”
Solely written by Marlowe, this track shares a singer/songwriter’s perspective when dealing with the lows many artists face during their careers.
The song also gives a subtle flip of the bird to an industry driven by numbers, money, and contracts. With just the simple picking on an acoustic guitar, the North Carolina native unveils his expressive pen by telling the story of a man who feels homesick after experiencing the constant grind and feeling passed over by corporate people wearing business suits.
“Take these gold plaques off the Sheetrock / Give all my guitars away / I’m tired of pouring out my soul for songs that they don’t wanna play / I know I’m just getting started in this godforsaken war / But take me home to Carolina / I don’t wanna be here anymore,” Marlowe sings the second verse of the melancholy tune.
Before dropping the stripped-down track, Marlowe took to Instagram to explain why he decided to leave out the bells and whistles in the release. He tells his more than 130k followers that the song “was recorded straight off my phone” rather than in a recording studio because “I didn’t feel like I could capture the real emotion behind it if I didn’t do it that way.”
More importantly, Marlowe, who penned the song at his house in just 30 minutes, informed folks that he’s not “mad at anyone” as he shared the backstory of how “Take Me Home” came about.
“I kind of wanted to clear up some things because I feel like there’s gonna be some allegations on me or something if I don’t speak out on it,” Marlowe says in the video uploaded to his Instagram account. “But, this song is a frustrating song. It’s an ‘I’m pissed off’ song. I’m not pissed off right now. But, at the moment, when I was writing this song, I was angry, and I needed to get some things off of my chest.”
“For me, this song is asking myself ‘Why in the hell am I still doing music? Why in the hell do I even give a s*** about Nashville? Why am I still here? What am I doing?” he continues, highlighting the more taxing part of a business in a city that often chews you up and spits you out. “It was wearing me out. It was taking too much of a toll on my mind, and I didn’t feel like I was even myself anymore. I just felt like I was this machine for other people to use. So I just needed to get that song out.”
Marlowe went on to say that he hopes fans and other people struggling to reach their personal goals and dreams will relate to the song. And he hopes the song will inspire them to continue despite going through a set of lows on their journey.
“Like, I feel like, I’m meant to do music. I’m sure there’s a lot of people, where some days they feel like, ‘Damn, I wanna get out of whatever thing I’m doing.’ But, you know you’re meant for it. So, that’s kind of the basis of the song,” Marlowe said. “I really want everybody to know I’m not trying to attack anybody. I’m not coming at the music industry with fu* flames or anything like that. I’m just giving my heart and my truth with what I said. That’s just me. I’ve always been a real person. I try to be as real as I possibly can with y’all. I try to let y’all into some of my life… And this is one of those things where it’s something that I hold dear to me. This song is just as much for me as it is for y’all. I just, kind of, needed to get it out as a reassurance for me. So, God Bless y’all.”
Marlowe first teased the new song earlier this year when he sat down with Bobby Bones on the Bobby Cast. During the interview, Marlowe revealed that “Take Me Home” was written when he was going through a rough spot at the end of 2022.
“It’s gonna be a song that’s a little bit more dear to my heart, that I was kind of in a dark spot when I wrote it, and it’s called ‘Take Me Home To Carolina.’” Marlowe explained to Bones on the podcast. “It was written right at the end of the year around CMAs, and I was just kinda pissed… it’s kind of an ‘F you’ to the industry. I learned a lot about myself when I was writing it.”
“Take Me Home” follows Marlowe’s debut album, We Were Cowboys, which was released last summer.
In March, Marlowe will play a run of shows overseas before he heads back to the U.S. for his headlining We Were Cowboys Tour 2023. Marlowe also has a handful of festival shows spread throughout the year.
