St. Marys native releases new music
Three years after making the lifealtering decision to move from Cleveland back to Tennessee after eight years away from the Volunteer State, St. Marys native Lori Triplett is gearing up for a release of her EP, or extended play, “Slow Poison.”
A project featuring six songs, Triplett wrote or co-wrote all the songs and the first four singles, “Same Pain,” “Out the Back Door,” “Right Where You’re Supposed to Be” and “If My Name Were New York,” are available on all major platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify and have been receiving airplay both locally and in Nashville.
Triplett’s work features strong themes of love, loss, hope, redemption and commentary on humanity. And although her music still has undertones of a deeply-rooted faith, as part of writing and performing in the Contemporary Christian music scene until recent years, her sound has evolved into more of an alternative, singer/songwriter and alt-country sound.
And the new release is a microcosm of Triplett’s style.
The EP is described by Triplett as a mixed bag of stories, sounds and personal yet relatable experiences for everyday people. Combining a singer/ songwriter feel with light electronic elements and production, the heart of the EP is about finding love and respect for oneself in difficult places so that listeners can in turn love others better in difficult places. Each song speaks about the almost inevitable journeys people are all bound to take in life at some point or another, and how those journeys tend to shape them as individuals.
“I clumsily wrote the title track on a borrowed guitar in the bedroom of my tiny apartment in Nashville in the first month of 2019 while learn
ing to play acoustic guitar and feeling weary of holding onto the weight of all that’s wrong in this world all the time,” Triplett said. “The hatred, the racism, the poverty, the division, the fighting, the arguing, the lack of decency and compassion, the ugliness — it was feeling like an unending and revolving door that I wish humanity had never opened, to begin with. I wanted to write something that would make people consider what I was saying without sounding like I was preaching at them while also acknowledging my shortcomings and flaws.”
While wrestling with herself to get the right words out for hours and hours, Triplett said she scribbled the words, “slow poison” down in a journal and circled them.
“It may sound strange, but when I managed to finish the song, I listened to the demo I had recorded over and over and cried for quite a while. I felt like I had finally written a song about something that truly mattered to me — how we treat each other,” she said. “I immediately knew I had to record it and that it needed to be the title of my next project.”
Triplett said those songs simply could not have been written without first spending time in the painful and uncomfortable places in life, places where people don’t understand how to navigate or see themselves getting out.
“They become so ingrained in your everyday life that you somehow begin to make yourself comfortable in them, knowing full well it’s not really where you want to be,” she added.
Spending years in those places and then finding her way out of them again helped her learn more about herself and evolve more as a person. “Slow Poison” is an invitation to make listeners think more about how they treat themselves and in turn, the way they treat others.
“If we can’t find it in ourselves to be respectful and loving to each other, we are just slowly killing one another with hatred — a slow poison,” Triplett said, explaining the meaning behind the title.
Fans can pre-save the project digitally or pre-order a CD now by visiting the store on her official website LoriTriplett.com. CDs will also be available for purchase starting Oct. 16 at Minster Bank in St. Marys, where Triplett worked for several years as a bank teller.
With the new release, Triplett is donating a portion of the sales from the EP to Kateswell. The nonprofit organization founded by former St. Marys resident and cancer survivor Katie Vanderhorst, along with her husband Brian, helps cancer patients in Ohio.
“The donation is in honor of my amazing mom, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last November, and all other people who have been directly and indirectly impacted by the disease,” Triplett said. “In doing this, I’m hoping to be able to make a bigger difference with this project than simply releasing it alone would do.”
The singer/songwriter is also encouraging fans to request her music on local radio stations including 96.7 WCSM Radio and 92.1 The Frog in Lima. Fans can also follow Triplett on several social media platforms, including subscribing to her YouTube channel, following her on Spotify, Facebook and Instagram (@ loritriplettmusic) and joining her mailing list on her website as well as getting involved in her Christmas project, which releases this winter.
By contributing to LoriTriplett.com/Contribute, listeners will get a free download of Triplett’s new unreleased Christmas song as part of her upcoming Christmas EP.
“Being an independent artist can be a little daunting sometimes,” she said on her website. “It means I’m responsible for every expense when it comes to making and releasing new music.
“So I want to say, ‘thank you’ again from the bottom of my heart to every single person who has supported me for years and have helped me be able to continue making music for others to enjoy. For me, it isn’t about trying to be famous or ‘making it big’ — it’s about putting something out into the world that might resonate with someone in a meaningful way and add something positive to their life.”