Daily Discovery: Caroline Reese, "Pennsylvania, Again"

Videos by American Songwriter

Caroline Reese is known for her beautiful Americana song crafting. She has released three recordings including her 2014 release, The Electric Year. She and her band The Drifting Fifth are currently on tour.

ARTIST: Caroline Reese

SONG: “Pennsylvania, Again”

BIRTHDATE: 10-27-1990

HOMETOWN: Reading, Pennsylvania

CURRENT LOCATION: Reading, Pennsylvania

AMBITIONS: My immediate goal is to finish writing a full length album, to be recorded this winter. My longterm goal is to be a touring songwriter and performer.

TURN-OFFS: Nervous talking.

TURN-ONS: Anything or anyone that looks like they’ve got a good story to tell.

DREAM GIG: Opening for Ray Wylie Hubbard

FAVORITE LYRIC: “Two cigarettes from the package gone / You must have thought about it just that long. I never knew you were so strong / I guess I never will.” –John Hiatt

CRAZIEST PERSON I KNOW: Well, I don’t know her, but Elizabeth Cook responds to my tweets sometimes. She seems like the best kind of crazy.

SONG I WISH I WROTE: “Guitar Town,” Steve Earle

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: Ray Wylie Hubbard, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Stevie Knicks, Nikki Lane…Enrique Iglesias.

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: Seeing Brandi Carlile at the Beacon Theater was a dream come true; I suffered through a stadium show in Camden to see Toby Keith and loved every minute. He just stands there and sings his heart out. Oh, and sets off some fireworks too.

I WROTE THIS SONG: “Pennsylvania, Again.” I was in the midst of recording my second LP, commuting back and forth between school in New Jersey and recording in my hometown of Reading, PA, almost every day. I hadn’t thought of myself as particularly sentimental about home until then; I would cross the state lines and have this big grin on my face. The lyrics of the chorus came to me as I was falling asleep and I sat right up and wrote them down. You could really replace “Pennsylvania” with anything; this is meant to be a universal song about leaving and returning home: “Pennsylvania, good and bad, I know I’ll always have / Pennsylvania, we were kids on I-76 / The roads that make me free of it are the ones that take me in / I’m off to Pennsylvania, again.”