[Cover photo credit to Lindsay Elliott]

Singer/songwriter Denison Witmer has released new single “Older and Free,” available everywhere through Asthmatic Kitty Records. It was Produced by his longtime friend Sufjan Stevens, who also lends his performance to the track. The new song is “a soothing meditation on the freedom found in the outdoors.”

Witmer says:

One of the benefits of getting older and knowing yourself is being able to seek out the things that reset you in times when things feel off balance. For me, alone time is very important. Nature is very important. Moving my body and getting lost in my thoughts has become a must – whether it be running or, in the case of this song, hiking. I wrote this song when I was solo camping for a night at French Creek State Park not far from my home in PA.

During Covid lockdown, my wife and I realized that we would burn out in the responsibilities of our day-to-day life if we didn’t take time to ourselves. The melody and lyrics came to me as I was hiking the Lenape Trail back to my campsite. I have a little classical guitar that goes with me most places, and I wrote the song in completion that evening. I got so attached to the sound that the little guitar ended up being the instrument we recorded the basic tracks with.

Since his debut nearly three decades ago, Denison Witmer has forged an ambient Folk sound heard across over a dozen releases. He released his eleventh studio album, American Foursquare, in 2020, which ended an unintentional seven-year hiatus from recording and releasing.

American Foursquare was a document of Denison’s time spent away from the music industry, “a more personal journey through marriage, fatherhood, and moving back to his home town of Lancaster, PA.”