Just in time for the 4th of July holiday weekend, Russell Dickerson released his summer EP, Three Months Two Streets Down, which evokes the nostalgia of summer love and laid-back vacation vibes. The five-track project is centered around the breezy summer anthem “Ride the Wave,” which Dickerson wrote with Shay Mooney of Dan + Shay along with John-Luke Carter.
Russell Dickerson also recorded a tune written by Tyler Hubbard, marking the first time the singer-songwriter has cut an outside song.
The idea for the seasonal EP began with Dickerson’s wife, Kailey, who was inspired by Jon Foreman’s collection of Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer EPs from 2007 and 2008. Kailey mentioned that she hadn’t seen that done in the country format and thought it would be a cool idea. “I just had a handful of these summer jams,” Dickerson recalled, telling Music Mayhem how the project came together.
“I had all these songs. I was like, I don’t know where they would fit on a normal album cycle. I could throw ’em on there, but I just want ’em to get more attention than just an album cut. And so that’s where her idea and my idea kind of met,” Dickerson shares.
“Ride The Wave”
The EP is centered around the track “Ride the Wave,” which includes the lyric that inspired the EP’s title Three Months Two Streets Down.
“It started off as a kind of EDM pop song. And Shay [Mooney] obviously sang the original vocal and it was way higher. And it was just this more upbeat, more fast, that kind of thing.” Dickerson felt that it didn’t match the emotion of the song, so when he went to record it, he switched things up. “I just picked up this little cheap guitar and I just started playing that. And we just kind of built the track around this more, not necessarily sad, but just more filled with emotion.”
“Down on the Beach” was originally pitched to Thomas Rhett by Tyler Hubbard, but a car ride with Rhett and Dickerson changed everything. “We were in the car and we always just play demos and play songs for each other that we’ve digging lately.” Rhett played “Down on the Beach” for Dickerson, explaining that Hubbard had sent it to him because he’d written it. Dickerson asked Rhett if he was cutting it, and when he said no, Dickerson jumped at the chance. “I was like, bro, I am all over this song.” Once he heard the lyric “sipping on a Heine with my hiney in the sand,” he knew he wanted to record it. “That’s the best line I’ve ever heard!” he exclaimed.
Took A Different Approach On His New EP Then Previous Projects
When it came to recording Three Months Two Streets Down, Dickerson took a different approach than his previous albums where he had been extremely hands-on.
“Towards the beginning of this year, we had a decent amount of time to really dive in on this summer EP. And so me and Josh Kerr just kind of sat down for days and days at a time and started chipping away at this and really not phoning anything in it.” They didn’t worry about trying to put together a studio band and juggle schedules on a strict timeline.
“Josh is one of the best musicians in Nashville, so he can play all the guitar parts, he can play all the keys parts, and we just would source out some steel guitar and some little programming stuff. But for the most part, man, it was just me and Josh in the studio just creating this organic [sound].” Dickerson even recorded himself drumming on a cardboard box to create a “muted, percussive kind of sound” for “Ride the Wave.” He described the moment as “one of those little magical things that you just discover in the recording process.”
Russell Dickerson’s Three Months Two Streets Down Track List
1. Ride The Wave – Russell Dickerson, John-Luke Carter, Shay Mooney
2. Down on the Beach – Jordan Schmidt, Chase McGill, Tyler Hubbard
3. Steal My Summer – Russell Dickerson, Jon Nite, Casey Brown
4. Beauty and the Beach – Russell Dickerson, Ashley Gorley, Jon Nite, Ben Johnson
5. SMR LV – Russell Dickerson, Sofia Quinn
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Nostalgic Summer Love
Dickerson was able to dive into nostalgic summer love by reflecting on his own experiences with past relationships.
“I remember this youth camp we went to,” Dickerson recalls, back in the days of AOL and instant messenger. “Me and this girl stayed connected for probably eight years after. We met one week and we IMed for literally years and years.” He leaned on those old feelings and experiences from youth camp, spring break and college to recreate those memories through his music.
These days, Dickerson is loving life with his wife Kailey and their 2-year-old son, Remington. The happy couple is also expecting another boy this fall.
This summer, Dickerson is on the road and taking each day as it comes. He shared that every day is different, but it usually starts with making a cup of coffee and exercising.
“I like to get a good workout in love, a good walk. So yesterday I walked four miles, did like 150 push-ups, and then we had a photo shoot for some more summer EP stuff. And then went to a radio station for a little mini concert. Every day’s different. You can’t get into a routine out here. You’ve got to roll with the punches and do what you’ve got to do to just crush every day.”
Observant fans may notice that the last track of the EP, “SMR LV” is short, feeling like a segue into a future project. At just one minute and thirty seconds long, Dickerson describes the outro “like a fade into fall.”
Teases Fall EP
The last lyric of the entire EP is “but nothing’s ever the same when the leaves change,” hinting at the transition into fall. “That is exactly why we put that there, is to lead that into a Fall EP,” Dickerson revealed. “I haven’t started recording it yet, but that’s the goal.”
Additionally, Russell Dickerson will launch his headlining Big Wheels & Back Roads Tour this fall on Sept. 21 in Philadelphia.
