Stephen Kellogg is set to release Objects in the Mirror on November 23, 2018. Produced by fellow Americana singer-songwriter Will Hoge, the 12-track set was recorded over the course of a single week in Nashville, TN and tracked live with minimal overdubs. The result is a snapshot of American life in 2018—raw, hopeful, and honest. “I wanted to make an album that sounded and felt like the ones I grew up loving," says Kellogg. "Bob Seger and Cat Stevens, Tom Petty and Rod Stewart. Emotional records where the songs relate to each other and the lyrics are front and center. That’s my true north.” Among the album’s many underlying themes of nostalgia, family, hope, and hard work, is Kellogg's unwavering respect for the influential women of his life—from his four young daughters (to whom he relays a series of tear-jerking fatherly sentiments in “Song For Daughters”) to his beloved late-Grandmother (immortalized in a beautifully nostalgic soundbite at the title track’s opening) to his wife of 16 years (the subject of his new single “Love Of My Life”). The Boot shared "Love Of My Life" today, explaining how Kellogg initially wrote the song for his wife's 40th birthday but was having some difficulty translating it to the version that made it on the record. Kellogg offers, "It seemed simple enough: the notion that a person, if they’re lucky, will have one true romantic love that eclipses all others. It has been the case for me, and I’ve seen it enough to know it’s possible, but for some reason, I was struggling to articulate it." He goes on to divulge that he ultimately found inspiration in a 1946 Gibson guitar and "really the whole song flowed out and in the bridge I said what I should have said all along…'saying it simple doesn’t make it mean less.'"
"Love Of My Life" is out digtially everywhere tomorrow, October 26, and can be heard/shared at the link below. Objects in the Mirror is available for pre-order now via the Kellogg Family Store. Kellogg has also announced an extensive U.S. solo tour throughout the rest of 2018 with support from Taylor Carson, to be followed by a full-band run next spring. Please see below for full tour details.
Last week, American Songwriter featured album track “High Highs, Low Lows” calling it “a slowly building folk anthem with chiming piano, gentle pedal steel and a raw, vulnerable vocal performance from Kellogg.” Of writing the song, Kellogg offered, “It’s is a bit of an ode to perseverance. To finding one’s way through hard times (of which there are plenty), and also having the sense to recognize happiness when it’s in front of us. Like a lot of people, I’m trying to make sense of some of the fractures that have occurred in my life. Music helps with that.”
Over the last decade, Kellogg has performed more than 1500 concerts around the world and released ten studio albums. During that time, he has sang duets with such artists as Sara Bareilles, Josh Ritter, Rosanne Cash, and Pat Monahan of Train, as well as co-penned acclaimed singles like the title track of Robert Randolph's 2017 GRAMMY-nominated Got Soul. He's earned the honor of Armed Forces Entertainer of the Year, been invited to speak to students at Columbine High School about social justice, and delivered a TEDx Talk on job satisfaction. In 2019, Wetware Media will be publishing Kellogg’s first full length book entitled Objects in the Mirror: A Storyteller’s Take On What Matters Most. A fitting companion to the forthcoming album, it’s a collection of essays about the parts of life that belong front and center. From marriage and work to health and forgiveness, nothing is off limits. Like the album that shares its name, the stories of Objects In The Mirror were culled from Kellogg’s own life and will take readers on a journey that is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking.
