RON POPE RELEASES NEW SINGLE & VIDEO ‘IN THE MORNING WITH THE COFFEE ON’
AMERICAN MAN, AMERICAN MUSIC LP OUT FEBRUARY 14 VIA BROOKLYN BASEMENT RECORDS
Photo credit: Blair Clark
NASHVILLE, TN. – (22 November, 2024) – Nashville-based platinum recording artist Ron Pope has unveiled ‘In The Morning With The Coffee On‘, the latest single and video from his forthcoming LP, American Man, American Music, set for release on February 14, 2025, via Brooklyn Basement Records.
On a morning in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Pope was up before sunrise; as his family slept, he took his guitar out to the dock, wrapped himself in an old quilt, and watched the day come alive over the Tennessee River. While he has written songs about his wife for the better part of the last two decades, some of the scenes depicted in this tune are from years apart; “Us on the side of the highway outside of Butte, Montana watching a hand-painted sunset cast across the biggest of skies or the awe we felt as the mist rose off Lake Allatoona, at the height of a Georgia summer in the first handful of weeks after I got down on one knee and asked her to change her name,” he recalls. “A year after that, I wept as she walked towards the altar, and I’m an ugly crier. Over the time we’ve been blessed to spend together, we’ve gained so much, but we’ve lost things too. Too many of our people have left this earth in the 11 years since we exchanged our vows. Life is so fleeting and the understanding that we’ll run out of time is an ever-present specter.”
“Sometimes, in the mornings, she’ll be stirring before our daughter, and I’ll just listen or watch her without saying much of anything,” he continues. “So much of this life sees us in constant motion, raising kids and making records is noisy business; I love to be near her in the quiet moments, relishing the stillness that comes before all the blessings in our life raise the joyful noise to a fever pitch once again.” The song’s heartfelt video, produced by Kirsten Hagwell and directed and filmed by Sean Hagwell, beautifully depicts those small, quiet moments.
‘In The Morning With The Coffee On’ follows heartland anthem ‘Mama Drove A Mustang’, ‘I Pray I’ll Be Seeing You Soon’, the playful ‘Nobody’s Gonna Make It Out Alive’, ‘I Gotta Change (Or I’m Gonna Die)’, a gut-punching commentary on the opioid epidemic, and ‘I’m Not The Devil (ft. Taylor Bickett)’.
LISTEN: ‘I GOTTA CHANGE (OR I’M GONNA DIE)’
LISTEN: ‘I’M NOT THE DEVIL (ft. TAYLOR BICKETT)’
For Ron Pope, the road was his ticket to a different life. From the time he was a teenager, the New Jersey-born, Georgia-raised songwriter was on tour, playing some form of rock, country, or soul with his buddies. Pope has been doing that for more than half of his life, visiting every corner of this country (along with many others) in the process. That experience defines how he views the world: the man he’s become, the musical community he’s built, the unforgiving passage of time, and the complicated truths at the heart of American life.
“I never really felt at home anywhere growing up,” Pope recalls. “For a long time, living on the road felt tailor-made for someone like me. And then I found love, grew up, and developed a sense of home centered around that love. But America is a character in my personal story in a way that it might not be for other people.” It’s a long road to that state of contentment, though. American Man, American Music reaches back to a time of humiliating gigs in Georgia bars and long stretches of making trouble with friends before the complexities of adult life started to kick in. Then Pope falls in love, gets dealt some crushing losses, and begins to take a closer look at the struggles of his community, like swaths of blue-collar areas decimated by opioid addictions.
Through it all, Pope’s empathy comes through in the album’s open-hearted messages: we all deserve to have a place to call home, we all deserve to have a shot at building a life, and we all have a family, whether blood or chosen. “This is an ode to the life I’m living now,” Pope says, “the journey it took me to get here and all the people I’ve known and loved along the way.”
American Man, American Music can be pre-saved HERE. Pope is currently on a co-headlining tour with singer-songwriter Joshua Radin in the Western US. He also recently announced the “Neon and Glass World Tour,” 28 dates slated for 2025 spanning the UK, EU, and the US, with Emily Scott Robinson, Andrea von Kampen, Thunderstorm Artis, and Denitia opening. See below for a full list of dates. Be sure to follow Ron Pope at the links below for all the latest news and updates.
NEON AND GLASS WORLD TOUR DATES
1/17/2025 – The Workmans Club – Dublin, IE*
1/18/2025 – The Black Box – Belfast, UK*
1/19/2025 – Drygate Brewery – Glasgow, UK*
1/20/2025 – Night & Day – Manchester, UK*
1/22/2025 – Paradiso (Upstairs) – Amsterdam, NL*
1/23/2025 – Hebebühne – Hamburg, DE*
1/25/2025 – Debaser Strand – Stockholm, SE*
1/26/2025 – Plan B – Malmö, SE*
1/28/2025 – Yuca Club – Cologne, DE*
1/30/2025 – The Garage – London, UK*
2/20/2025 – Old Rock House – St. Louis, MO^
2/21/2025 – Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL^
2/22/2025 – Turf Club – St. Paul, MN^
2/24/2025 – Vivarium – Milwaukee, WI^
2/25/2025 – Hi-Fi – Indianapolis, IN^
2/26/2025 – Beachland Ballroom & Tavern – Cleveland, OH^
2/28/2025 – Ludlow Garage – Cincinnati, OH^
3/1/2025 – Mr. Smalls Theatre – Pittsburgh, PA^
3/2/2025 – Horseshoe Tavern – Toronto, ON^
3/4/2025 – The Iron Horse – Northampton, MA^
3/5/2025 – The Foundry – Philadelphia, PA**
3/7/2025 – The Sinclair – Cambridge, MA**
3/8/2025 – Racket NYC – New York, NY**
3/9/2025 – The Atlantis – Washington DC**
3/11/2025 – The Southern Cafe & Music Hall – Charlottesville, VA^^
3/12/2025 – Motorco Music Hall – Durham, NC^^
3/14/2025 – Terminal West – Atlanta, GA^^
3/15/2025 – The Basement East – Nashville, TN^^
*w/ Emily Scott Robinson
^w/ Andrea von Kampen
**w/ Thunderstorm Artis
^^w/ Denitia
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