Korean Tea

Album: Dixie Blur (2020)
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Songfacts®:

  • Jonathan Wilson wrote this song about a young stalker he used to have when he was in his old band, Muscadine. He explained to Uncut magazine: "She was a superfan who used to come to the studio and leave gifts on my car. She'd leave tea from Korea and sometimes she'd even cook and leave a plastic bin of food out there."
  • Wilson recorded "Korean Tea," along with the rest of Dixie Blur, at Cowboy Jack Clement's Sound Emporium Studio in Nashville. The singer-songwriter laid down the tracks with some of Music City's most renowned session musicians, including multi-instrumentalist Marty Stuart, guitarist Kenny Vaughan, and bassist Dennis Crouch.

    The album represents a huge change for Wilson, who usually plays every instrument on his records, which he lays down at his Los Angeles studio. It was Steve Earle who suggested the departure. "We got together and played this NPR show and at some point I was explaining to him that I wasn't sure what the f--k I was going to do. He said something to the effect of 'go to Nashville,'" Wilson recalled to Rolling Stone. "So I imagined what a crack session band would sound like and what I could do with that."

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