Addision Lea Thompson : Unquiet Mind
It’s been just over a year since Addison Lea Thompson released his album, Western Sky, which gave a little more focus on some of his slower and more serious songs than his earlier records. For the past few months Thompson has been on social media teasing a new album and now he has released the first song but with a warning, “This single is very different from what I typically put out, heads up.”
Late last year he had a rather cryptic post on Facebook: “Honky Tonk Loud is dead. Excited for the new album.”
Honky Tonk Loud was how Thompson referred to the music he played and it became clear that he was heading in a different direction.
The new single, “Unquiet Mind,” is certainly a change from the outlaw country sound that has dominated Addison Lea Thompson’s past records. It begins with a solo finger-picked acoustic guitar as the only accompaniment for Thompson’s quavering vocal, and is then joined by a pedal steel and lightly brushed snare. He sings:
“It’s a sad state of affairs, the state that I’m in /
and even though I’m surrounded /
I feel like I ain’t got a friend”
Like so many other artists, 2020 was tough on Thompson and this tune seems to be an outlet for that frustration. He says, "“Unquiet Mind" was recorded with Matt Strachan in Helena, Montana. It was written out of my personal struggles this past year, as well as what I felt the world was going through struggle-wise."