Americana singer/songwriter Wyatt Easterling released his latest album, From Where I Stand, in 2022, and it was impacted by the extra time the pandemic period allowed for him to more fully realize his songs sonically and emotionally. As an album that, on the whole, seeks to heal division and ruminate upon the valuable things in life, the track “Love Says It Best” is a key feature of that landscape.
We’re delighted to premier Easterling’s live play video for “Love Says It Best” on Wildfire today and also reflect on its origins and message. The track takes us inside the philosophy of a friend who handles anger and hostility by reflecting on his grounding in the golden rule and carrying out principles of kindness and love with great determination. Easterling’s musical approach is incisive and bold, but also melodic and uncluttered, to showcasing the storytelling at work. It’s a song crafted to convey a direct message both in its lyric and in its composition.
The video for the track sets up a number of dramatic situations between human beings that result in alienation or connection, and alongside Easterling’s live performance on a dark background, suggests figures in our culture who set the kind of example he’s reflecting on in the song. This further humanizes lines like, “I still struggle with the notion, I could have the same faith, too.”
Wyatt Easterling comments on the track:
I had a friend named Chuck McDowell who I met at a songwriting retreat I was teaching, and we became the best of friends. I had huge admiration for Chuck and his ability to let life’s disappointments teach him a lesson and then let it go. Chuck died of cancer in 2019. I was so proud to have known this man and admired his attitude of not taking himself too seriously. His Faith was unshakable, and he was not ashamed to profess his belief, this one’s for Chuck, RIP.
Those familiar with Wyatt Easterling’s decades of work in the music industry will know that he also hosts songwriting workshops and has a history in making them a mainstream phenomenon for musicians.
He has held roles as an executive of both a major record label and publishing company, and through working at Atlantic Records as Chief of A&R, he singed and Produced notable artists and became aware of approaches to talent development.
Later partnering with Miles Copeland (Sting, The Police, IRS Records) and forming the Nashville Division of Bugle Publishing Group and Firstars Management as Director of Operations, Easterling brought in Keith Urban. Easterling and Copeland also created Bugle Publishing Group’s The Castle, the first of its kind songwriter’s retreat held yearly at Miles Copeland’s Chateau Marouatte in France.
This event saw great success with a long list of esteemed artists and writers such as Keith Urban, Cher, Carole King, Jon Bon Jovi, Peter Frampton, Olivia Newton-John, and Stuart Copeland, to name a few. Other career highlights so far for Easterling include working with DreamWorks Publishing, and opening Terra Nova Music, his own publishing company in Nashville.
Wyatt Easterling’s fifth album, titled From Where I Stand, arrived in 2022 and was supported by touring.
