Cara Louise is an emerging Nashville-based singer/songwriter. Her David Beeman-produced full-length debut, Wholesome Dread is slated for a September 2022 release through Soul Step Records — and is the follow-up to her debut EP, 2019’s Fragile Heart.
Wholesome Dread reportedly sees the Nashville-based artist making a bold sonic push away from her classic country roots and blurring the lines between indie rock, folk and Americana, while also drawing from the Laurel Canyon folk sound and David Lynch among others.
Wholesome Dread‘s first single, “Empty Me” is a heady mix of classic doo wop, Lynchian eerie vibes and 60s psych pop centered around twinkling keys, atmospheric synths, twangy, reverb-drenched guitar, paired with Cara Louise’s plaintive pop belter-like vocals and an enormous hook. “Empty Me” sonically speaking is the sort of song where you’d sway to yourself or cry into your beer while longing for a past you can’t get back.
But interestingly enough, as the Nashville-based artist explains, the song is rooted in lived-in, universal experience — feeling dissociative and drained from the daily struggles of working to survive and pay bills while maintaining relationships.
