Ben Glover - The Emigrant (2016)

When an ocean separates the two halves of your whole, it's worthy of contemplation. For Irish-born, Nashville-based singer/songwriter Ben Glover, that consideration comes in the form of his new album, The Emigrant, which folds his two worlds into one. Co-produced by Glover and Neilson Hubbard, the album features six traditional folk songs and four original compositions (including co-writes with Gretchen Peters, Mary Gauthier, and Tony Kerr) as Glover addresses the universal theme and personal challenge that is immigration. "It all began with the song 'The Emigrant,'" he says. "I started writing that on a solo writing retreat I went on in rural Ireland and ended up finishing it with Gretchen Peters in Nashville. When that song arrived, it unlocked a desire to make an album that brought together an older tradition with a present-day spirit." He also turned to another one of his most-trusted collaborators: Mary Gauthier. Glover is a frequent co-writer with both Peters and Gauthier, having won International Song of the Year at the 2016 UK Americana Awards with Peters for "Blackbirds," a song which appears on Atlantic and serves as the title track to her most recent solo album.