Last Friday, March 29, Americana-folk singer-songwriter Holly Lerski shared her new single, "Oh Cassy Run," ahead of her upcoming album, "Sweet Decline," out April 26. The song itself tells the euphoric perspective of a hitchhiker traveling across the country, living freely.
Behind Holly Lerski's 'Oh Cassy Run'
This particular story came straight from Lerski's own experiences, as she says: "'Oh Cassy Run' is about the dream of living in the wild, of off-grid living. I'd been traveling through America for 15 days by the point when I wrote it."
"I'd never road-tripped on my own in America before, nor driven to LA. Everything was a first," she continued. " I was getting over a heartbreak, and this was my remedy."
Lerski added that at some point along her journey, she remembered a poem she had written long ago about her dog, Cassy, as it slept. Thereafter, the artist recalled that she started inserting melodies into the short piece in her head and felt "euphoric" as she did so.
"For the first time in a long time," she said, "I was feeling happy and glad I was single and free. Day 18 - after I left LA - was the first time I played it on a guitar."
This carefree vibe extends to the new single's music video, which was released ahead of the song. Featuring "Book of Boba Fett" actor Galen Howard, the video feels personable and "fun," directly reflecting the song's theme of embracing freedom and running "into the wild, into the woods."
About Holly Lerski's Upcoming Album: 'Sweet Decline'
Lerski's aforementioned breakup eventually became an album-long creative muse for her, not just for her recent single. Reeling from the pain of losing a long-term relationship in 2019, Lerski made use of the drive and wrote up a storm during her stays in two "suites."
The result? Her fifth career album, "Sweet Decline." In particular, as the artist rode the coattails of her hitchhiking high and went on a solo road trip, tugging along a miniature guitar across seven US states in just twenty days, she was able to write the first seven tracks of the record.
Two months later, she revived her journey, this time wandering from the cool desert of Southern California to its slithering coastline. There, she put to paper three songs from the record. As for her last song, "Girl in a High Castle," she wrote in a shepherd's hut in Dorset, England.
"I went off to find America and found myself in this incredible landscape I'd only ever dreamed of: mountains, deserts, redwood forests, the wild Pacific Ocean," recalls Lerski.
"And I met all these amazing people along the way, experienced random acts of kindness time and time again," she added. "The more I opened up to life, the more the lucky breaks came," referring to opportunities she ran into during her journey, meeting new people and "unearthing" new songs.
You can now stream "Oh Cassy Run" on both Spotify and Apple Music, or you can watch its music video below.
