Welcome back to the Deep Dive. You know how we
do it. We sift through all the material articles,
interviews, the whole lot, and boil it down so
you get the essential insights fast. Today we
are diving deep into an artist who I think really
captures so much about the modern American experience,
especially its contrasts. We're talking about
the incredible Kentucky singer -songwriter S
.G. Goodman. That's a perfect way to put it.
Our sources... really paint her as more than
just a musician. She's almost like a cultural
synthesizer, maybe? Yeah. A bridge builder. Yeah.
We've got a pretty comprehensive set of materials
here. Her life story, career path, how critics
have responded. And our goal today, really, is
to figure out how this unique mix, you know,
deep rural southern roots plus a serious education
and philosophy created this voice that speaks
so clearly to America's divides, especially that
urban -rural tension. And you kind of have to
start right there, don't you, with that central
contrast, that pterodox, because it feels like
the engine driving her art. I mean, she's this
critically lauded figure in Americana folk rock.
But where did she come from? Hickman, Kentucky.
Started singing in the Southern Baptist Church.
That's deep tradition, faith, rural life, all
baked in. But then she goes off to university
to study philosophy. And now she's writing these
incredibly sharp songs about things like the
opioid crisis. It's just, yeah, a fascinating
clash of worlds. It really is. It's like the
traditional South meeting this analytical questioning
mind. Goodman, who's, what, 36 now in October
2025. She's not just carrying on a tradition.
She's using the language of Americana, but she's
kind of interrogating it, too. She offers this
really modern, informed voice in a genre that
can sometimes lean towards, well, romanticizing
the past. She gets the Southern story from the
inside, definitely. But she also has that philosophical
training to sort of dissect where things might
be broken. Right, to see the systems, maybe.
Exactly. So to really understand that synthesis,
we have to start at the beginning. We need to
ground ourselves in her geography because it
seems absolutely... fundamental to her identity.
And, you know, her sound follows from that. For
sure. She grew up way down in the southwestern
corner of Kentucky in Hickman. And now she lives
a bit further northeast in Murray. And those
places are crucial. Hickman's right there by
the Mississippi River. Feels pretty remote sometimes,
even from the rest of Kentucky. That whole experience,
the farming, the small town life, it just anchors
her music. Yeah. You look at how people write
about her work and they constantly point back
to this deep connection to. the place, the Southern
narratives. There's this sense that we need authentic
voices from these areas that often get, well,
stereotyped or misunderstood. And right at the
heart of that early life, you've got farming
and faith. Her dad was a farmer, still is. That
connection to the land, the cycles, the hard
work, that's a whole worldview right there. Definitely.
And alongside that agricultural rhythm, there
was the rhythm of faith. The sources really stress
how central the Southern Baptist Church was,
attending church three times a week with her
family. I mean, three times a week. That's not
just showing up on Sunday. No, that's serious
commitment. It's total immersion, right, in the
community, the rituals, and importantly, that
specific kind of vocal performance environment.
That's really where she started performing. Probably
shaped her voice, her sense of communal storytelling.
It's that classic foundation, like you said.
But what's also really interesting about that
childhood is how you have that structure three
times a week church side by side with these other
details that suggest this like incredible early
independence. Yeah. Well, OK, she started playing
rhythm guitar around 15. That makes sense for
a musician. Right. Pretty standard. But then
there's this amazing detail. She apparently started
driving much, much earlier, like age seven. Age
seven. Wow. OK, that's that's a detail you remember.
Right. That's kind of a perfect little anecdote,
isn't it? Just instantly paints a picture of
maybe. Rural pragmatism. The sources are clear.
It was definitely illegal in Kentucky. But it
suggests this environment where, you know, the
practical needs of farm life, getting around
on back roads, maybe just outweighed the official
rules sometimes. I think we should pause on that
for a second because it says so much about that
internal tension, maybe. How so? Well, you have
this kid steeped in the moral framework of the
Southern Baptist Church three times a week. all
about rule structure. Right. But at the same
time, she's out there learning independence,
maybe breaking the law just out of sheer necessity
on the farm. That's a great point. It's almost
like the origin story for the artist who can
critique the system, but still clearly loves
the people in it. That early independence, driving
at seven, I mean, that fosters a kind of self
-reliance that must feed into her art later.
Yeah, you'd think so. She's not waiting for permission,
right? Yeah. Whether it's driving a truck or
writing a song that tells a hard truth. It sets
up this duality, structure and freedom, tradition,
and just doing what needs to be done. And then
those tensions start to really combine or maybe
get processed with the philosophical turn. Around
2007, she moves to Murray, goes to Murray State
University. And she specifically chooses to study
philosophy. That feels like a key moment. Experience
meets analysis. This is maybe the most critical
piece for understanding her depth, I think. Yeah.
That philosophy degree isn't just like an interesting
factoid. It's the toolkit. Yeah. It's what separates
her perhaps from a lot of other songwriters working
in similar veins. Okay. Explain that. Why philosophy
specifically? Why not say political science or
sociology if she's interested in social issues?
That's a really good question. Because philosophy,
especially areas like ethics or epistemology,
how we know what we know, it trains you. to spot
and question the underlying assumptions. Butal
science or sociology might describe the structures,
how things are. Philosophy asks why they are
that way, questions the values, defines the terms,
builds the moral arguments. So that training
lets her go beyond just, you know, reporting
on the opioid crisis or the rural -urban gap.
It lets her analyze the root, causes the sort
of moral questions, the economic factors, the
failures maybe in community or government. So
she's not just a storyteller. She's a critic
using music as her medium. She's getting at the
whys. Exactly. When she tackles these tough subjects,
she's bringing the heart of someone who lived
it, for sure, but also the brain of someone trained
to think systematically about complex ideas.
She can handle nuance, avoid easy answers, maybe
because that education pushed her to think critically.
It gives her that necessary distance, maybe.
to look at her own background without just being
sentimental or falling into stereotypes. I think
so. And that's maybe how she can bridge that
urban -rural divide in her work. She brings this
intellectual seriousness to the rural experience,
forcing listeners who might dismiss that world
to actually engage with the critique in the songs.
Okay, so we've got the roots, the intellectual
framework. Let's talk about how the music itself
developed. Before her solo career really took
off, there was an important earlier chapter,
right? The band, the Savage Radley. Yeah, the
Savage Radley. That was our first main musical
project. Started with drummer Stephen Montgomery.
They put out one album, Kudzu, on a label called
Slow Water Records. Kudzu. That's quite a title
for a Southern band. Isn't it? That invasive
vine that just covers everything in the South.
Such a loaded, potent metaphor. Wow. Beautiful,
but overwhelming, maybe destructive. Wow. So
even early on, she was grabbing onto these complex
symbols of home. Seems like it. And that band
experience is important context. First, it shows
she wasn't just an overnight sensation, right?
She was working at it, honing her craft. And
second, that label, Slow Water, being a more
regional Kentucky label, it shows some early
roots, some loyalty to the local scene. Right.
And then she moves into her solo work and starts
building this signature sound. We hear it called
Americana, folk, country, rock. It kind of touches
all those bases. It does. But her technical choices,
the gear. That seems really specific and important
to the overall mood. Let's get into that, because
this is where someone interested in how music
is actually made can learn a lot. Okay, yeah.
We know she really favors Guild Starfire guitars.
These are semi -hollow or hollow -bodied guitars,
different from, say, a solid -bodied Telecaster
or Les Paul that you might associate with rock
or some country. Okay. And crucially, the sources
mention she likes them specifically for their
humbuckers. All right. For the non -guitar nerds
among us, what does choosing humbuckers tell
us? What kind of sound is she going for there?
It tells us quite a bit, actually. So a humbucker
pickup, basically it cancels out electrical hum,
hence the name humbucker, which single coil pickups
can be prone to. Right. But sonically, the big
difference is that humbuckers generally give
you a fuller, thicker, kind of beefier sound.
They have a higher output. Think less bright
twang or sharp jangle like you might get from
single coils and more. Warmth, weight, maybe
even a bit of grit. Ah, okay. So it pushes her
sound away from pure folk or traditional country
twang. Exactly. It leans it more towards that
rockier side of Americana. It gives music this
density, this substance, which honestly feels
really appropriate for the heavy themes she often
explores. So the gear choice itself has muscle.
It does. It's a deliberate sonic texture that
matches the lyrical weight. But maybe the most
defining technical detail, the one that really
shapes her sound, is her tuning. Okay. She usually
plays with her guitar tuned down a whole step.
That's a big deal, a significant choice. Explain
that. What does tuning down a whole step do?
How does lowering the pitch change things for
her and for us listeners? Okay, so tuning down
a whole step means every string goes down two
frets, essentially. E becomes D, A becomes G,
and so on. It's a dramatic shift. For the guitar
itself, it lowers the string tension. This tends
to make the sound darker, maybe more resonant.
Sometimes a bit looser or heavier. Think of a
standard guitar having a bright voice. Tuning
down a whole step gives it more of a baritone
quality. A heavier feel. So if the songs are
already dealing with heavy topics history, social
problems, the down -tuning kind of doubles down
on that mood sonically, even before she sings.
Precisely. The whole sonic foundation is inherently
moodier, weightier. And for Goodman as a performer,
this often helps her vocally. By lowering the
pitch of the music behind her, It allows her
voice to sit in a different register. Maybe a
lower, more powerful spot where she doesn't have
to strain as much to get the intensity across.
Ah, that makes sense. It contributes to that
characteristic vocal delivery she has. You know,
really raw, direct, powerful. The whole package
feels heavy. The tuning is heavy. The pickups
are thick. The lyrics carry weight. It all works
together. And this carefully built sound comes
together for her solo debut in 2020, Old Time
Feeling. And that album arrived with a really
significant partnership that must have given
her a huge boost right away. Yeah, that debut
was a big deal, partly because it was co -produced
by Jim James of My Morning Jacket. Okay, and
Jim James, he's Kentucky music royalty, basically,
but also known for being pretty experimental,
right? Exactly. He's an institution in that whole
Kentucky rock alternative scene, known for pushing
boundaries, psychedelic sounds sometimes. Having
him involved immediately signals something important.
What does it signal, you think? To the industry,
to listeners. Well, it gives her instant credibility
beyond just the folk or country world. It says,
hey, this songwriter is sophisticated enough
to catch the ear of someone like Jim James. Right.
His influence probably encouraged some of the
more atmospheric, maybe slightly rockier elements
on. old time feeling. It ensured the record didn't
sound just like traditional folk. It had this
indie rock sensibility, too. That connection
was definitely key in getting her initial momentum
going, pulling in listeners who might not normally
check out an Americana debut. So let's track
her solo albums since then. She's been remarkably
consistent, putting out three albums pretty quickly.
Yeah, very consistent. The debut old time feeling
was 2020. Then two years later, Teeth Marks came
out in 2022. And then the most recent one, Planting
by the Signs, just arrived. June 20th, 2025.
So yeah, roughly a two -year cycle. That's a
strong creative pace. Especially considering
the debut landed right in the pandemic. Right.
Now, looking at the labels involved, there's
an interesting path there, too. Teeth Marks was
on Verb Forecast, which is part of a major label
group known for jazz, but also some serious alternative
stuff. A significant step up in terms of label
profile. But then for the 2025 album, Planting
by the Signs, she seems to have shifted again.
It's listed as being released via Slow Water
Records. That's the same local label from the
Savage Radley days. Right. Back to the roots.
in a way. But also with distribution through
30 tigers. What does that combination tell us?
Well, it tells us a lot about how savvy, independent
artists navigate the business now. Moving to
Verve for teeth marks likely gave her a much
wider reach, bigger marketing budget. Sure. But
returning to Slow Water for the latest, while
bringing in 30 tigers for distribution, that
suggests a focus on artistic control. Maybe loyalty
to her roots, but still needing professional
reach. And 30 Tigers, their big name in the independent
world, right? Oh, yeah. Arguably the name for
distribution and marketing support for indie
artists in Americana folk country. Yeah. Working
with them lets her and Slawater keep ownership
and creative direction, but still get their records
into stores nationwide, onto digital platforms
effectively. So it's kind of a hybrid model.
Exactly. It's smart. She keeps that local connection,
that independence, but gets the horsepower she
needs as a nationally recognized artist. It really
fits her profile. Yeah. Committed to her Kentucky
identity, but with national, even international
ambition. OK, let's go back to the content of
the music, the thematic depth, because this is
where that philosophy background really seems
to come into play. Her second album, Teeth Marks
from 2022, has a track that directly confronts
a major issue. Track five, If You Were Someone
I Loved. It's about the opioid crisis, right?
Yes. And that's such a devastatingly important
topic, especially for Kentucky, which has been
hit incredibly hard. What's striking is how she
approaches it. It's not abstract or political
in a lecturing way. It feels incredibly personal,
intimate, and just deeply sad. The song's framing,
If You Were Someone I Loved, allows her to talk
about the tragedy and maybe the systemic failures
around it, but through this lens of personal
connection and loss. And thinking about that
through her philosophical training, she's not
just reporting on addiction statistics, is she?
She seems to be exploring the, I don't know,
the community breakdown, the ethical implications
of it all. I think that's exactly right. Her
background might equip her to move beyond just
the surface level tragedy and ask those deeper
questions about why it's happening. The human
cost, yes, but also the systemic neglect, the
sense of abandonment. Music becomes this way
to have a communal conversation about really.
painful things. She's forcing listeners both
inside and outside her community to face the
devastation not just as a news headline but as
this incredibly personal potential loss. The
loss of someone I loved. It makes her more of
a truth teller maybe than just an entertainer.
That takes real courage to hold up a mirror to
your own community like that. It does. And this
actually connects to something mentioned in the
sources, this idea of music being healing. We
can come back to that, but maybe part of the
healing is in actually naming the pain, validating
the experiences of people affected by the crisis,
creating that shared space for grief. Maybe that's
the first step towards change. Speaking of dealing
with difficult circumstances, her early touring
life had a really unusual start, didn't it? Yeah,
talk about bad timing. Her debut... Old Time
Feeling, the one produced by Jim James, creating
all this buzz. Yeah. It comes out in 2020. Right
when the world shuts down. COVID. No live music.
Exactly. So she has this critically acclaimed
debut, getting great reviews, but she can't do
the thing that rising artists absolutely need
to do. Tour, connect with audiences live, build
that grassroots support show by show. Wow. That
must have been incredibly frustrating. A huge
hurdle. For sure. Which means, kind of remarkably,
that her tour for her second album, Teeth Marks,
in 2022. That was effectively her first proper
solo headlining tour. So the momentum from the
first album had to carry itself purely on the
recordings and the press for two whole years.
Pretty much. Before she could really get out
there and capitalize on it in person. That just
underlines how strong that debut album must have
been. That it could sustain that level of interest
and critical acclaim without the usual touring
push. The music itself was doing the heavy lifting,
just waiting for the stages to reopen. And the
power of that songwriting, even with those challenges,
is really clear when you look at the impact of
one specific song. Space and Time. From Old Time
Feeling. Ah, yeah, Space and Time. That song
seems to have had a life of its own. It's the
perfect example of how her writing connects across
different worlds. It got covered twice, right?
In really different styles. Twice, yeah. First,
you have this huge endorsement from right within
her genre's heartland. Tyler Childers covered
it on his album, Rustin in the Rain. Okay, now
that is significant for anyone listening who
follows Americana or country. Tyler Childers
is massive. He's another Kentucky artist with
immense credibility and a huge following. Him
choosing to cover your song, that's like a coronation
almost. It really is. It's a huge stamp of approval.
It confirms the song's emotional weight, its
lyrical quality. That someone like Childers,
known for his own powerful, often politically
charged Appalachian storytelling, saw that song
as something he wanted to sing. It connects Goodman
directly to that vital Kentucky songwriting lineage.
But then the song jumps tracks completely. It
was also covered by Devante Hines, who most people
know as Blood Orange, and the singer Mariba.
And this was for a film soundtrack. Yeah, for
the soundtrack of the 2022 movie Master Gardener,
Paul Schrader film. Wow. So that takes her work
into this completely different sphere. Indie
film, arthouse sensibility. Devante Hines' sound
is nothing like Tyler Childers. It's more R &B,
electronic, atmospheric. Totally different world.
So his interpretation with Meribah is going to
bring out different qualities in the song, probably
more texture, maybe more ambient. But clearly,
the emotional core of the song still worked powerfully
in the context of that film. And that cover actually
got formal recognition, didn't it? It did. The
performance by Marabal earned a nomination at
the 2023 Hollywood Music and Media Awards for
Original Song Independent Film. And crucially,
Goodman was credited as the songwriter. That's
amazing. So the same song works for a major country
star and a sophisticated indie film composer.
What does that tell you? It tells you the songwriting
itself is just fundamentally strong. Universal,
maybe. It has this core emotional truth that
resonates, whether it's presented with a country
playing or an electronic soundscape. It just
proves the quality of the composition itself.
So all of this, the albums, the covers, the critical
buzz, it all seemed to come together in 2023.
That felt like her real breakthrough year in
terms of industry recognition. Definitely. The
biggest marker was winning the Emerging Artist
of the Year Award from the Americana Music Association.
That's the official nod, the industry saying,
OK. She's arrived. She's a major voice for the
future of this music. And even before that big
award, she'd already gotten the nod from some
pretty important gatekeepers in the folk world.
That's right. She played the Newport Folk Festival
back in July 2021. Getting invited to Newport,
I mean, that stage has so much history. So many
legendary careers were launched or cemented there.
Playing Newport that early in her solo career
really solidified her place within that whole
folk and Americana tradition. OK, so let's try
and tie these threads together for the listener.
You've got Jim James producing her, Tyler Childers
covering her, Devante Hines using her song in
a film. She wins emerging artists, plays Newport.
What does all that mean about S .G. Goodman and
her music? I think it means she's achieved something
really rare. The synthesis we talked about, it's
real. Her music is undeniably rooted in Kentucky.
Yeah. You can't separate it from that place,
that culture. But the way she processes it. The
sophistication maybe brought by that philosophical
lens makes it connect way beyond those borders.
She operates right at that crossroads of like...
Deep Southern tradition and forward -thinking
indie music. She can hang with an experimentalist
like Jim James and be embraced by a traditionalist
powerhouse like Tyler Childers. She really is
building bridges, carrying the specific story
of her corner of Kentucky out to all these different
audiences. It's that combination, isn't it? Authentic
voice plus artistic and intellectual rigor. So
wrapping this up, we followed this incredible
path from Hickman, Kentucky, the farm, the Southern
Baptist Church three times a week. That almost
unbelievable story of driving at age seven through
to studying philosophy at Murray State. And all
of that feeding into this artist who becomes
the Americana Emerging Artist of the Year with
these three really vital albums out now, Old
Time Feeling, Teeth Marks, and Planting by the
Sign. But I think the big takeaway for you listening
is seeing the power of synthesizing different
parts of your experience. than feeling like you
have to choose one or discard another. SG Goodman's
strength, her depth, it comes precisely because
she didn't abandon her roots when she picked
up those analytical tools from philosophy. She
used the critical thinking to understand and
articulate her Kentucky experience in a new way.
The result is art that feels both deeply authentic
and really challenging. It's that constant interplay,
isn't it, between the very specific place she's
from and the broad, critical perspective she
developed. That's what makes the music travel
so well. And that brings us right back to that
core tension and this idea of healing that the
sources mention. Goodman apparently believes
music can't be healing for the person writing
it and the person listening. But then you look
at her whole approach, choosing to tune the guitar
down, creating this inherently heavier sound.
tackling subjects like the opioid crisis head
on, critiquing aspects of her own community.
Right. So how does an artist who leans into difficulty,
into weight, into critique, how does that process
become healing? Is the healing in finding comfort
or is it found in the act of confrontation itself?
That's the big question, isn't it? What kind
of philosophy is at play there? Is she suggesting
that true healing actually requires facing the
difficult stuff first? That maybe you can't get
past the burden of history, that old time feeling,
without using those critical tools to understand
why the wounds are there in the first place.
It makes you think about the artist's role. Are
they there just to soothe or also to diagnose,
maybe even perform a kind of cultural surgery?
A powerful thought to leave things on. That's
a question for you to ponder as you maybe go
listen to S .G. Goodman's records after this.
Thanks for joining us for this deep dive. Yeah,
thanks everyone. We'll catch you next time.