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May 09, 2024 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Starla Dawn

Nashville-based singer/songwriter Grace Pettis released her debut album Working Woman in 2021 and next month she is set to return with her forthcoming sophomore record, Down To The Letter. The album finds her going in a vulnerable direction, exploring themes of loss, heartbreak, and reclamation in the aftermath of a marriage’s dissolution. Pettis once again teamed with producer Mary Bragg for her sophomore record, alongside her friend and collaborator Josh Kaler, with the trio recording much of the album in less than a week in producer Jon Estes’ intimate home studio in Nashville.

Last month Pettis shared the record’s lead single, “I Take Care of Me Now,” and today she’s back with another new track, “Horses,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Horses” finds Pettis evoking her talent for sweet and ruminative folk, offering a delicate ballad steeped in swirls of fingerpicked guitar and keys. Lyrically, the track acts equally as a reflection on girlhood and a tribute to the beauty of the titular horses. Pettis sings caught up in the lull of memory, remembering the power and freedom that horses represented to her: “See, I had this disease that made my whole body hurt / So no cartwheels and no climbing trees for me / But I had my mother’s piano, I could make a big old noise / I had horses running through my dreams / When I drew them, sometimes I gave them wings”

Pettis explains, “When I was a kid, I had something called juvenile rheumatoid arthritis for several years. It left as mysteriously as it arrived. During my diagnosis and treatment, my grandmother, would send a small gift every time I had a doctor’s visit, or blood drawn. Once, she embroidered one of my horse drawings on to a pillow. She loved to sew. In my drawing, a black unicorn is leaping over a row of clouds, surrounded by shooting stars. Its mane and tail are red and its horn is made out of rainbows. Every time I play “Horses,” I think about my grandmother and my mom and the way they loved me through those years. And I think of the way that many girls and women long to be like ‘Horses’ both vulnerable and beautiful, and strong and free. And how those things are not mutually exclusive.”

Check out the song below. Down to the Letter is out on June 14th.