Tom Harrison marks his debut solo release with catchy folk country single, 'How Long'

Moreton Bay Region’s Tom Harrison marks his debut solo single today with the release of ‘How Long’. Since bursting onto the music scene in 2018 with his band Hugo Stranger and the Rattlers, Tom Harrison has been making all kinds of noise ever since. After releasing their debut album Against the Tide in 2021, and a newest single ‘Leaders’ in 2023, Harrison has found the time to release his debut single as a solo artist.

‘How Long’ was recorded at his home studio in the Moreton Bay region, Harrison recorded all the instruments himself except bass and had his wife Angela perform backing vocals on ‘How Long’ and whistled the solo for the track ‘Miles Away’. The two songs were mixed by Nell Forster at the Moon Room in Salisbury, Brisbane and mastering for the track’s was provided by Mikey Young.

‘How Long’s strengths lie in making complexity sound simple. While the song comes across as a laid-back road-trippin’ shuffle, peel back the layers and there’s more happening than appears, from the glockenspiel and underlying simple piano, to the multiple different guitars and tones that interweave with each other. The track brings to mind the easy-going folk country storytelling of Basement Birds, Fleet Foxes, and Josh Pyke, with Tom painting vivid imagery both lyrically and in his delivery. Deep down, there’s a lot of us that, while the idea of life travelling abroad or on the road, realise there’s no place quite like home - just make sure when you do make that trip, take a guitar with you to capture a gem like this when the inspiration strikes.

Tom Harrison, revealed the songs’ (and the EP’s) inspiration came from a formative adventure he took with his wife Angela across North America in their Chevy G10 six years ago, living out of the van as they cut their own trail through the west coast of Canada & America.

“I wrote some of these songs within the first few months of travelling, there was so much inspiring me at the time. However I had also just written the debut album for Hugo Stranger just before the trip, so upon returning to Australia I wasn't confident enough to be a solo musician and wanted to put my first band together (Hugo Stranger). I’ve had these songs ready to go for years, however I finally feel like I can give them justice and tell their story properly.”

The first taste of his upcoming EP ‘Old Growth’ is the trail blazing ‘How Long’. It tells the tale of a couple who’ve been travelling a long time, and starting to question when and how to return to normalcy. Tom Harrison elaborates “Do you accept the inevitable fate of returning to a normal life working a nine to five, or stay on the highway chasing the next thrill? It's not easy. Travelling is everyone's dream, however when you’ve done it for a year you start to feel like maybe you're meant to be somewhere else, meant to buy a house and live that 9 to 5 style life.Its also about our mortality, ‘How Long’ have we got, we tend to think we’re running out of time or that we have less than we actually do, struggling to live in the moment because there's something else we’re apparently supposed to be doing.”

The song's infectious harmonies soar over bouncing banjo and piano lines that leave the listener somewhere between the mountain folk of Fleet Foxes and Tom Petty’s tranquil ‘Wildflowers’. Loaded with a brand new EP of blues folk tunes, Tom Harrison has a huge year ahead of him. Having already played Meatstock in Toowoomba, up next he plays the Newstead Roots festival with plenty more to come.

‘How Long’ is out now on all streaming platforms. Catch Tom Harrison at Newstead Roots Weekender (playing on the Sunday) at The Triffid over the weekend of July 29th and 30th.