Over the course of her decade-plus-long career, Lily Meola has carved out a niche that isn’t really a niche; as heard on this year’s Postcards to Heaven EP, the Hawaiian-born singer-songwriter floats between modern country and willowy pop. But starting with one of her first mentors — Willie Nelson — she’s also had a strong jones for the Nashville sound: She’s duetted with Nelson and Kris Kristofferson and played at Farm Aid. And her new single is a duet with another, even more hirsute outlaw traditionalist, Jamey Johnson.
Lyrically, “Never Want This to Change” is part of a pop or country tradition: a song about a momentary connection between two people that’s likely destined to end before either of them wants it to. In a statement, Meola says it was inspired by “the feeling you get when you meet someone that makes you want to freeze time just so you can live in that moment with them forever. They have this special effect on you that melts away all your worries while simultaneously giving you the wildest butterflies.”
But the song itself (written by Meola, Melissa Fuller, and Ben West) is a genuine slow-burn saloon heartbreaker. Meola and Johnson trade verses before her smoothly emotive voice, paired with his burlier tone, converge on the chorus: “I’m good with the seasons, the snow and the rain/The moon and its phases, the toppling waves/I know there’s a reason nothing stays the same/But I never want this to change.” It’s the sound of longing captured in a little over three minutes.
“Never Want This to Change” is a belated follow-up to the duo’s last recorded duet, a remake of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” recorded in 2014. In a statement, Johnson says he was always aware of Meola’s eclectic approach: “While she’s a great pop singer, musically she reminds me more of a jazz singer. She reminds me of somebody like Ella Fitzgerald, a very smart, gifted musician.” But even Johnson admits he was caught off-guard by her new song and the deep country well it dips into. “I really didn’t expect it,” he says, “even after the other songs of hers I have heard. It just caught me by surprise.”
No word yet on whether “Never Want This to Change” will appear on Meola’s in-progress new album, but the song is notable as yet another example of Johnson’s re-emergence. Last fall, he released Midnight Gasoline, his first album of new material in 14 years, and he also hooked up onstage a few times with Oliver Anthony during Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” moment in the culture.
Starting Tuesday in Phoenix and continuing through a May 25 show in Quincy, Washington, Meola — who turned in a dazzling performance at this year’s Luck Reunion — will once again join up with the Outlaw Music Festival tour alongside Nelson, Bob Dylan, Billy Strings, Sierra Hull, and (on a few shows) Lake Street Dive. Johnson starts a summer tour of his own in Wichita, Kansas, on June 4.
