‘Invent a T-Shirt’ debuts Oct. 2
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Like her hero, Roger Miller—widely known for his novelty songs with clever lyrics—Jenny Tolman, loves poking fun in rhyme and doesn’t shy away from sensitive subjects. This time it’s the social media community Tolman is targeting when her latest single, “Invent A T-Shirt” drops Friday, Oct. 2.
Tolman, who the Tennessean named “Artist to Watch in 2020” and Rolling Stone included her debut in “40 Best Country and Americana Albums of 2019” (#24), wrote ‘Invent a T-Shirt’ with Dave Brainard and Bill Whyte. “We wrote this because I think we all need to stick a pin in our tension balloons and take a second to laugh at ourselves.”
Tolman pauses, “I’ve never gotten too into politics as I like to take the WWDD (What Would Dolly Do) approach, and I still hold that true, but I felt like someone needed to come out and say, ‘HOLD UP! We have all gone a little crazy, and that’s OK, but let’s just acknowledge it and stop being jerks to each other, please!’”
Here’s an excerpt of her conversational lyrics:
Now I’m all about folks speaking their mind
Or putting something clever on a picket sign
But speaking that mind requires for you to at least have one
But more importantly, we all could start
Looking at the world with a grateful heart
And eat the good apples and just toss out the bad ones
As Nashville Scene’s “Best Country Debut” writer Brittney McKenna notes, “Nashville can be a tough town for women making country music,” but Tolman counters that dose of reality with playful yet incisive lyrics that have caught the ear of music critics and fans alike. It doesn’t hurt that Tolman is as compelling a vocalist as she is a songwriter.