Tenille Townes Shakes Off the Breakup Blues in New ‘I Kept the Roses’

Tenille Townes does some post-breakup housecleaning in “I Kept the Roses,” the sparsely produced and emphatically delivered third track released from her upcoming Jay Joyce-produced debut album. Out go the ex’s t-shirts, along with her solitary drinking habit, the couple’s shared friends and those drive-bys to check whether he’s home alone. What she’s happy to hang on to, however, are the roses that serve as a reminder of brighter days, and perhaps even better days ahead.

Townes’ uniquely textured vocals, here a scintillating mesh of Brandi Carlile-like force and Lori McKenna-inspired tenderness, have already propelled her powerful debut single “Somebody’s Daughter” to chart-topping status in her Canadian homeland, and another of the forthcoming album’s tracks, the driving “White Horse,” showcases the rootsy singer-songwriter’s guitar-fueled approach to great effect.

A native of Grand Prairie, Alberta, Townes also tapped into her philanthropic nature at a young age. She was just 15 when she started a fundraiser in her hometown to benefit a youth shelter. To date, that effort has raised over a million dollars.

Currently on the road with Dierks Bentley on the country superstar’s Burning Man Tour, she’ll join Miranda Lambert’s Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Tour later this year.