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Dec 28, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Jodi James

Next month, Baton Rouge-based singer/songwriters Clay Parker and Jodi James are set to share their second full-length album as a duo, Your Very Own Dream. The pair released a self-titled EP in 2016 and followed with their full-length debut, 2018’s The Lonesomest Sound That Can Sound, sharing a talent for sparse, plaintive folk meditations and yearning Americana harmonies. Earlier this month, the duo shared the record’s lead single, “Nothing At All,” and today they’re back with another track, “Fire For The Water,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Fire For The Water” finds Parker and James offering a warm folk rock ramble, guided by ringing guitar tones, stately percussion, and honeyed vocals. Parker takes center stage, supported by James’ swooning harmonies and a breezy, singable melody. The pair show off an effortless collaborative chemistry, their voices blending effortlessly together. Meanwhile, Parker’s winding, rambling lyrics give the track a worn burnished sheen, making it feel like a forgotten folk classic. All along, Parker and James’ vocals dance with the twangy guitars, swirling together until the jangly tones coalesce into a smoky solo to guide the track to its end.

Parker says of the song, I think the melody and structure are what hold it all together. I’m fascinated by a lot of the old-world songs that we still pass along with interchangeable or just flat-out wrong lyrics. Sometimes they seem to border on absurd—and I like that. I like that a tune can be worth singing or a rhyme worth landing without linearity being a necessity. Songs like “Fire For The Water” are written pretty passively… I’ll have a melody in my head for a couple of days, and if I can come up with a verse and remember it without writing it down, I figure it’s worth keeping. Once I have a pile of them, Jodi and I will sit and whittle and shape them into something that moves us.

James continues, saying of the track, “A lot of Clay’s seemingly nonsensical rambles are really profundities wrapped in a bunch of y’alls, naws, yeahs, ohs, and heys. And I love that he doesn’t lean on linearity. It can be just disorienting enough that when something does finally click, it’s got more weight to it…you’ll have this ah-ha moment and just sorta smirk at the brilliance. Or you can mold the meaning to suit your moods-or let it not mean anything at all.

I really like the jaunty groove of this tune. It’s always fun to play and we usually use it as an opener, both for live performance and on the record. It’s a good tone-setter and shows that we’re very serious about not taking ourselves too seriously.”

Check out the song below. Your Very Own Dream is out on January 19th.