Nashville Exile’s Hand Drawn Brings Americana, Classic Rock and Personal Songwriting Together

Nashville Exile's Hand Drawn is a debut album comprising 11 tracks that highlight the band's mix of Americana, roots-rock and classic rock influences alongside more personal songwriting. The record has been created based on the band members' long history as musicians, with songs like "The Alchemist," "Sing Our Song," "Almost Gone" and "Collide" showing how the album transitions between softer country-feeling guitar work, layered vocals, fuller harmonies and more reflective lyrical ideas. Across the album, the contrast between warmer and more uplifting moments and songs that feel more reflective gives Hand Drawn a broader emotional range, while still making sure the guitar work, harmonies and personal songwriting feel closely connected from one track to the next.

The Personal Songwriting Across Hand Drawn

Nashville Exile uses personal songwriting as a key role across Hand Drawn as a way to bring in different emotions into the record since many of the songs touch on core ideas like relationships, memory, belief and the value of holding onto meaningful moments. "The Alchemist" is a strong example of that approach where the song uses the character of an alchemist as a way to explore the idea of searching for something meaningful and trying to create something out of nothing. Matthew Crozer has described the song as being tied to belief and learning to appreciate what truly matters in life, which is reflected in the lyrics that reject "fool's gold" and material value in favour of engaging in deeper emotional connection. The repeated line "I can still believe" also gives the song a more hopeful feeling with the wider idea of searching for something important being the central focus of the song.

"Sing Our Song" takes on a warmer direction through its songwriting since the lyrics place emphasis on finding someone, sharing a life together and holding onto the memories that come with that relationship. The song was originally written to be a personalized wedding track, which gives context to why the lyrics feel very direct and personal in the way they talk about the sense of commitment and appreciation for another person. Lines like "Feeling so lucky to have found you" and the repeated idea that the song in their head is "never gonna fade out" adds a more affectionate quality to the song with later verses expanding that feeling by looking at the life they have created together. The more positive lyrical direction across this song matches the guitar work, softer vocals and overall happier feeling that can be heard throughout the track.

"Almost Gone" on the other hand approaches songwriting through a reflective approach as the lyrics talk about passing time, preserving memories and recognizing how quickly certain moments can disappear. Imagery about painting a picture, writing a book and sitting beneath an apple tree while thinking about childhood have been used to add more of that nostalgic feeling into the track. Repeated lines like "don't let it get away" adds a stronger sense of urgency beneath that calm reflection in the song, and also highlights how the lyrics look back on personal memories as a natural with the softer-country sounding like guitar work and harmonica-like sounds heard across the track. The female vocals which come in later also add another emotional layer that doesn't distract from the song's overall more thoughtful direction.

"Collide" focuses on a more openly romantic songwriting direction as it uses flying and navigation as recurring imagery to highlight how the feeling of falling in love and finding someone to share that feeling with. There are references to aeroplanes, altitude, copilots and shooting stars which indicates that the lyrics focus more on the playful senses of movement. The chorus on the other hand brings the idea back to something more direct as the songwriting uses repeated lines that question the feeling of wanting and needing someone to love. The background of the song also adds another layer to the writing since Matthew Crozer has explained that the idea of the chorus came to him while driving to teach acoustic guitar, before Cat later helped tweak the lyrics and melody. This collaborative process also helps to explain how the softer guitar work and happier vocal delivery came to be, which together gives the song a more uplifting ending to the album.

The Americana and Classic Rock Influences Behind Hand Drawn

Hand Drawn has done a great job of using Americana and classic rock influences which can be traced back to the artists Nashville Exile have noted as being fundamental to their musical background like Tom Petty, The Rolling Stones, John Prine, Jimmy Webb and Warren Zevon. Instead of the album being focused solely on one particular style, it has multiple influences that brings together country-feeling guitar work, rock-based arrangements and more direct forms of storytelling across the songs. The band also introduced themselves as artists through covering Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City" and John Prine's "Silent Night All Day Long," with Billy Prine appearing as a guest vocalist on the latter. That connection to classic American songwriting can be heard throughout Hand Drawn, especially in the way the  band uses straightforward lyrical ideas with guitar-led arrangements and harmonies that make sure each song feels rooted in tradition without sounding like direct recreations of the artists that inspired them.

That experience behind the band is another reason why Hand Drawn comes across as feeling more developed than just being a typical debut, since the members had already spent years prior performing, writing and recording before forming Nashville Exile together. Matthew Crozer had previously played guitar with UnAmerican, where he gained experience recording and touring internationally. He and Cat Smithurst also worked together through The Redfords before Nashville Exile was formed. Amu Dennett, Rick Kent and Mark Smithurst later joined , bringing their own experience into the band. With all that history behind them, Hand Drawn feels like the work of musicians who already understood how they wanted to approach songwriting and performance before releasing their first record together.

Check out the album below and you can keep up with the band on Instagram here.