Lucie Tiger ProfileThis week sees the release of Lucie Tiger’s highly anticipated album, Small Town Scandal, with its punctual arrival coming amongst a flurry of awards for the once-Sydney native.
Tiger’s instant cult-classic Harvest Moon won Grand Prize at the Pensacola Songwriters Festival, while her track Hummingbird won the Country Song of the Year at the 16th Annual InterContinental Music Awards in Hollywood.
In addition to her accomplishment of having nine Music Row Charting Singles, just last year, Tiger was named Country Vocalist of the Year at the Josie Music Awards. If Harvest Moon captured the Australian and US country scene, she has certainly held it with her follow-up hits, Oh Preacher, Last Call For Trouble, Hell In A Halter Top, and Cowboy Love Me.
Tiger has an undeniable knack for digging into meaty Southern-flavoured country rock sound and subject matter, with her solid streak of blues keeping her in high rotation. The 14-track Small Town Scandal album is a bold and voyeuristic recounting of Tiger’s experiences in Alabama, and her broader experiences in Nashville.
Tiger does not deny her intrigue with the lives and choices of others, particularly in a small town setting which is so foreign to her previous life in busy Sydney.
"All of the songs on this album are very, very new, very fresh," Tiger explains. "It was just a real snapshot of what I observed over that time. There's some that I really like that are a little bit different for me musically, which is fun. It was really fun in the studio to extend myself a little bit.”
"There's a lot of songs on there where I wrote them from the perspective of people doing these just ridiculously dumb things," she adds.
While some artists are keen to leave easter eggs in the identity and messages of their songs (ahem, Miss Swift), Tiger is quick to dispel that idea – but that hasn’t stopped people from wondering if she was at the centre of the cheating drama in her Last Call For Trouble track.
"I had a couple of people come up and be like, 'Oh my god, is this song about you?'" she recalls. "And I was like, 'No. Everyone's got to have a cheating song, right?'
"The closest that I get to that is patting a cat that's not mine, which I feel is emotional cheating," she laughs. "I come home, and I see my cat, Frank, and he's looking at me, and I know he knows."
The album, which will be Tiger's fourth, was recorded in the iconic Muscle Shoals in Alabama, where artists across all genres have recorded, like The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Phil Collins, The Black Keys, and so many more.
With a population of less than 20,000 people, it’s home to a number of singer-songwriters who have based themselves there, ready to jump in and support new and classic artists seeking that Muscle Shoals experience.
"Everyone's sort of experiencing this and writing songs about it, and it's funny, but very inspirational," gushes Tiger. "I can't say enough good things about recording in the Shoals."
One of her fondest memories came about during the recording of Oh Preacher. One of the last sessions for the album, Tiger recalls suggesting a switch to performing bluegrass.
"The guys were all like, 'Okay, let's do it!'" she remembers. "I was able to find a guy called Scooter Muse who played banjo whose relative had written monster hits like [Carrie Underwood's] Before He Cheats.”
“It's like the craziest little connection. Then we got our keys player, his wife, Lisa Silver, played fiddle on that. And so we had all these really cool bluegrass textures in there."
Almost one year ahead of the album's release to the day, Tiger spoke to Countrytown about her single Harvest Moon, which is essentially a murder ballad following a scorned woman who has been betrayed by her cousin and lover, resulting in a situation where “two went to the river, only the rumour came back”.
Delivered with a sweet smile and her striking Southern bombshell appearance, it’s clear how this song became the breakout hit it became.
Having just completed an enormous tour this month around the states, sadly there are no slots in Australia on the horizon. It would appear that there are too many experiences and stories to be mined from these small towns that Tiger gravitates to.
"I spent two years in a small town after living in Sydney my entire life," Tiger explains. "It was definitely very eye-opening. I definitely thought people would be better behaved. And it's so funny that they're not!
"The average person doesn't move from a city of five million to a small town in Alabama. And so then you're just so exposed to what is going on."
Like her music-making, Tiger keeps herself open to different experiences, vowing that she will never just stop in for a McDonald's breakfast when there is potential to find a diner that is a little further out and a haunt for people she has never crossed paths with.
It’s this curiosity that has put Tiger in so many different rooms and privy to the not-so-stand-up activities of others. And honestly, we want all the details.
"I'll go to Mississippi, and I'll have alligator for dinner. When's the next time that's going to be an option?" she asks. "It really does taste like chicken.
"When you do see the sign that says 'Billy the Kid's grave that way', go and check it out and see what's there, and you'll have a story to tell,” said Tiger.
Lucie Tiger's Small Town Scandal is released September 30th.
