Netherlands-based songstress and storyteller Judy Blank shares her stunning new single and video featuring Dylan Earl, ‘Never Said A Word’, taken from her 7inch Record Store Day release ‘Never Said A Word / Throwing Lines’, out on July 17th via V2 Records.
Young hearts, old souls. The most liberal cowboy in the U.S. of . met with the Dutch queen of Americana in his home state, the Great Damn State Of Arkansas, in the fall of last year. The two of them became friends while driving through the postcard views of the Ozark Mountains, philosophizing about life, drinking strong, mad dog margaritas. They soon discovered they shared a passion for old school country tunes and began writing songs quickly after.
“When Dylan and I met in the Arkansas Ozarks, we immediately had a vibe. He's a charming figure and cracked me up before we even had a drink. Sharply dressed, weird, quirky. My kind of guy. We became friends over frozen margaritas in a bar in the middle of nowhere.” Blank said. “The first time I heard him sing I had chills going down my spine: I've always had a thing for music from the sixties and seventies, and Dylan's voice is like a magic time travel portal to those forgotten times. We quickly found out that our love for old songs was mutual, and we wrote country ballad “Never Said A Word” in less than two hours. We were both born a few decades too late, haha. He’s a little more dedicated than me though; there’s no wifi at his place and he still watches movies on VHS. He’s the bomb.”
Blank and Earl recorded this newborn classic 4461 miles away from where they wrote it: the Electrosaurus Studios in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Produced by none less than Pablo van de Poel (DeWolff) musically enhanced by Stefan Wolfs, Dutch master of the Sad Machine, and members of Chatham County Line (US) who happened to be spending their day off from touring with living legend Judy Collins in Utrecht on the day of the recording, this 7'' single could possibly be the poster child for international collaboration in this genre and will soon be chart-topping. Or so we'd like to believe.
Blank explains: “Never Said A Word” is a song about two people sharing the same broken dream. It’s about losing something that was never yours, and most of all: realizing you took a wrong turn somewhere in the past. The longing never fades away though. We tried capturing this feeling by shooting our morning routines on both sides of the world. Dylan in Arkansas, me in Utrecht, the Netherlands. It’s funny; he shot his part on his own and it turns out we both make coffee in a french press. The outdoor scenery, except from the mountains, accidentally looks pretty similar. Plus, I drive an American car, haha!”
After the release of her album ‘Morning Sun’ (2018), Blank has been storming the Americana scene and made history by becoming the first Dutch artist ever to play AmericanaFest. She has been releasing new music ever since and is currently working on an exciting new project. ''At the moment, I'm spending most of my time in the studio, working on a brand new full-length record that sounds completely different than the last one. The pandemic has definitely given me the time to experiment with new (old!) sounds. It has forced me to record in the Netherlands instead of Nashville, where I usually record my albums. I’m extremely happy with the results though! It’s been a real fun ride to work with local musicians and my favorite Dutch indie producer, Roy van Rosendaal. We dressed up my new songs with more layered productions, synthesizers and generally made bolder artistic choices. But my love for classic, timeless songs will never die, so being able to record these gems with Dylan Earl himself and producer Pablo van de Poel (DeWolff) in the Netherlands definitely combined the best of both worlds. I’m thrilled to release this Record Store Day exclusive cross-atlantic collaboration.”
