alabama plates

If 'choosin' texas' is about leaving Alabama, 'alabama plates' is about the road back. Side B of Dandelion opens with this — a mid-tempo driving song that uses license plates the way the title track uses the flower. The plates are the only fixed thing about who she is. Everything else is up for revision.

Hunter Phelps and Jessie Jo Dillon co-write, and the song reflects both of their strengths — Phelps loves a specific physical detail, and Dillon writes choruses you can hear on first listen. Will Bundy's production is the most road-trip of any Dandelion track: a slap-back delay on the rhythm guitar, prominent hi-hat, and a synth pad that's quiet but doing a lot of work in the chorus.

It got a country radio push and topped out at #19 on Country Airplay — a respectable showing for a Side B track, and well above the typical performance for a non-single. Live, it's the song that anchors the middle of the set. Ella's done it as both a full-band arrangement and a stripped acoustic version at smaller shows; both work.