Donovan Woods Tributes Late Friend With 'I Talk About You'
(MPG) Award-winning singer-songwriter Donovan Woods has announced the February 27 release of his new EP Squander Your Gifts. Woods' first original music since his celebrated 2024 album Things Were Never Good If They're Not Good Now, this 5-track EP is a collection of songs dedicated to his friend and writing partner Abe Stoklasa, who passed away in 2023. Along with the announcement Woods shares a powerfully simplistic video for his new single "I Talk About You," a gut-punch of a song that pays homage to his late friend.
Donovan Woods and Abe Stoklasa worked closely for years in Nashville, writing songs together including "Leaving Nashville" recorded by Lady A's Charles Kelley, and Woods' breakout single "Portland, Maine," first recorded by Tim McGraw. Squander Your Gifts is a personal reflection of loss, love and living that will keep listeners pulled in. On the first track, "I Talk About You," Woods opens up about the loss.
Woods on the new single: "This song is very explicitly about my friend Abe Stoklasa. Abe died unexpectedly and way too young in 2023. I wrote many songs with Abe and was so admiring of his talent. He wrote melodies unlike anyone else's. Which is hard to do after 100 years of pop music. You couldn't hear the jumping-off point in his ideas. He somehow started and finished lines of lyric and melody in ways that consistently surprised and left-footed me. I love to think and talk about his uniqueness, and that's what the song's about. He got a raw deal in childhood and had a hard life because of it. Especially in the wake of his death, people would lament that he wasn't able to fully express his gifts because he struggled so mightily. He didn't feel any compunction about it. His gifts were entirely his own. He used them when he wanted, with whom he wanted. I loved that about him and was frustrated by it in equal measure. I didn't do enough to help him and I miss him every day."
Discussing the EP as a whole, he adds, "I went through a period of only being able to write about him. It lasted about a year and I wondered if it would ever end. Eventually, I felt that I owed it to Abe to dedicate a collection of songs to him and that's what this is. He liked my writing and that emboldened me to believe that my point-of-view had value, that my stubborn, maybe even boring devotion to plainspoken lyric would eventually matter. Abe was a gifted melodist whose ideas arrived from a musical palette I had no access to. His voice was wonderful: wise, easy to hear and easy to love. He sounded like he was 58 years old at 24. In a way, he was. Abe was incredibly kind and thoughtful to those he loved, whip smart and hilarious, as principled as anyone I've ever known. He cooked me the best steak I've ever eaten. He was brilliant. He was irritating as hell. I loved him and I miss him terribly."
Donovan Woods will hit the road this spring on a North American tour supporting The Paper Kites, with stops in New York, Boston, Nashville, Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles and more.
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