Single Premiere: John Louis, “Wake Me Up”
Get an exclusive first listen to the Minnesota singer-songwriter’s breathtaking new song!
John Louis. Photo credit: Nate Ryan.
John Louis’s voice is gentle, honest, almost unassuming, but there’s something about it that stops you in your tracks. Then you hear a line or two of his lyrics, and that’s enough to get you fully hooked. Louis has the kind of mastery of words that’s simple and natural yet precisely attuned to the workings of the human heart, and a way of expressing it that’s humble and earthbound yet fulfills our instinctive desire to tap into the divine and mystical.
There is almost no other artist I’d trust more to tackle the topic of his new single and turn it into a song that’s as pleasurable as it is heartbreaking. “Wake Me Up” comes out tomorrow, Friday December 8, but we’re honored to share its exclusive premiere here today!
The song’s stripped-down arrangement sets an unadorned stage for Louis’s voice and arresting lyrics. “Wake me up from this sad sad scene,” he begins; “Whatever it takes—ice cubes or amphetamines.”
Told from the perspective of someone preparing to leave (which could be interpreted a few different ways), “Wake Me Up” is about trying to capture final moments together, saying something—anything—while you still have the chance (“Something from your heart or just a good joke”). As hungry as parting ways makes us for those conversations, the song acknowledges that there are no words that can fully sum up a life or relationship or feeling in light of the magnitude of impending loss: “Voices break like light through a crack in the drapes / Is there really anything left to say?”
John Louis. Photo credit: Tara Tulberg.
Louis shared the story behind “Wake Me Up”: “My dad died from an aggressive cancer when I was in my late 20s. I remember one particularly hard day at the hospital when we were asked to make a decision about whether or not to wake him from a very deep sleep so some of us could potentially have a final conversation with him, or to just let him sleep peacefully.”
Interestingly, he doesn’t remember which path they chose; if they did wake him up, the words exchanged weren’t as memorable as the internal debate that preceded them. “But as I’ve thought of it in recent years, it occurred to me that if I was ever the one dying, I’d want my kids and loved ones to bring me back for whatever last moment they wanted to have,” Louis says.
With just a gently strummed acoustic guitar, bittersweet violin and subtle bass, the instrumentation cradles the quietly devastating lyrics, imbuing them with beauty and a certain lightness despite their emotional weight. “Dex Wolfe did an amazing job in the production and engineering on this,” Louis says, “and the contributions of Clifton Nesseth’s violin and Robbie Weisshaar on bass are stunning.”
“Wake Me Up” will be on Louis’s new album, For Everyone (Especially You), which he plans to officially drop on January 22, 2024 (with a likely early release on Bandcamp).
Listen to “Wake Me Up” now!
John Louis will celebrate the release of For Everyone (Especially You) on Thursday January 25, 2024, at the Hook and Ladder Theater in Minneapolis! Doors open at 7pm and the music starts at 7:30pm with Bad Posture Club and Jon Rodine opening.
“Wake Me Up” Single Credits
Written by John Louis
Produced by Dex Wolfe & John Louis
Engineered and mixed by Dex Wolfe
Mastered by Pete Lyman at Infrasonic Sound in Nashville, TN
John Louis: vocals, acoustic guitar
Clifton Nesseth: violin
Robbie Weisshaar: upright bass
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carol Roth. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Carol Roth is the primary writer, social media manager, podcast producer and event-calendar updater for Adventures in Americana. By day she’s a marketing writer/brand strategist. In addition to playing guitar and songwriting, she writes self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym T.A. Berkeley.
