Video premiere: Baylee Barrett, ‘Good Time’

Kevin Bronson on November 19th, 2020

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Baylee Barrett hails from Buddy Holly’s hometown of Lubbock, Texas, having found her singing voice at church services, honing those skills as part of an all-girl quartet that achieved some fame and then translating them to confessional songwriting.

“Singing is the one thing that I’ve always done,” says Barrett, who moved to L.A. when she was 18. “I was shielded from a lot of music growing up, but I could always attach myself to melodies. It just comes naturally to me. Even as a young person I could recognize how a specific melody could make me feel, especially at a time when I was unable to express how I was feeling in words.”

She connects using both melody and words on her transportive new single “Good Time,” etching her emotions in fireside tones and measured phrasing that suggest a steely resolve has taken over where world-weariness once reigned. “Washed my sheets, rearranged my room, cut my hair so I feel brand new / but here you are, there was never gonna be a good time,” she sings.

“‘Good Time,’ in a broad stroke, is about closure and all the little nonsensical things we do to find it,” Barrett says. “Heartbreak isn’t a game, we all know, but for some reason I’m still dead set on winning.”

The single, out Friday, is the first in Barrett’s collaborations with producer/multi-instrumentalist Billy Mohler, who has worked with the likes of Dolly Parton, Lady Gaga, AWOLNATION, the Jimmy Chamberlin Complex and Kelly Clarkson. An album is in the works for MAKE Records, the label Mohler co-founded with Aaron Smart (Silverplanes).

In the video for “Good Time,” Barrett is home alone with her song and her dual selves, one staying and one going.

||| Watch: The video for “Good Time”