After American Idol

Granville Automatic shares stories of history and legend through new album

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gals from Granville Automatic have done it again.

By that, I mean they’ve released another fine country-folk album, this time sharing stories from the Civil War.

“An Army Without Music” hit iTunes last Friday, featuring nine songs focused on battles or personalities from that conflict.

Granville Automatic includes songwriter-guitarist Elizabeth Elkins and songwriter-vocalist Vanessa Olivarez, who placed 12th way back on Season 2 of American Idol.

They previously released a superb self-titled studio album back in 2012, also focusing on stories about history.

“The cool thing about history, is you never run out of material,” Vanessa said when I interviewed her back in 2013. “There are just endless stories, endless tales. And it’s nice to have things to write about that are true and actually happened instead of writing about the same love story over and over again.”

Two standout tracks on the new album are “Rose of Sharon” and “Lanterns at Horseshoe Ridge.”

The former, embedded above, is about the Battle of Mansfield in Louisiana. A Confederate victory, the battle occurred in April 1864 and has the distinction of being one of the largest battles fought west of the Mississippi.

As Elizabeth explains in the video, the song is based on a legend about a soldier who fought in the Red River Valley campaign, was last seen sitting alive under an Oak tree following the fighting, but was never heard from again. She also explains the significance of the Rose of Sharon.

“Lanterns at Horseshoe Ridge” is about the September 1863 Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia and based on the way wives and girlfriends went out with lanterns after the fighting ended searching for their loved ones. I’ve embedded a live version of that song below.

The album was years in the making; Vanessa and Elizabeth also write for other artists. In fact, they’re co-writers on Billy “Currington’s latest single, “Drinkin’ Town with a Football Problem.”

You can keep up with Granville Automatic through their website and Facebook page. On Twitter, they are @gvilleautomatic.

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