Singled Out: Kara Hesse's Vanity

Nashville-based Americana Rock Soul artist Kara Hesse recently released her new album Devil & the Dove and to celebrate we asked her to tell us about the song "Vanity". Here is the story:

"Vanity" actually came out of my very first Nashville co-write with Greg Wilson. Unlike a lot of the songs on Devil & the Dove, it wasn't pulled from one specific memory or person in my life. It came from years of observing the world around me and thinking about all the messages we absorb about beauty and self-worth-from movies, magazines and advertising to social media and even the toys we grow up with. Those messages have always existed, but in the digital age, they've gotten so much louder.

I don't think social media created our obsession with appearance, but I do think it put it on steroids. We're living in a time where people can learn how to curate an image before they've really had the chance to discover who they are. That was at the heart of what I wanted to explore with "Vanity." Vanity itself is natural, and the song isn't meant to criticize beauty or wanting to feel beautiful. To me, it's really a song about value-what makes us feel worthy of love, attention and acceptance, and what happens when being seen starts to feel the same as being valued. I kept coming back to the idea that the mirror can show you what you look like, but it can't tell you who you are.

The recording itself went through a transformation, too. At one point, I experimented with taking the song in more of a pop-country direction because I wanted the message to reach younger listeners. But toward the end of making the album, I made a last-minute decision to completely re-track it. I slowed it down and stripped everything back around a singular gut-string guitar. That felt right because guitar was the instrument I first learned to write songs on, and bringing the song back to something that simple made the message feel much more honest. Charlie Morgan, who has played with artists including Elton John and Olivia Newton-John, played drums on the final recording.

"Vanity" ended up being the final song completed for Devil & the Dove, and I think there's something fitting about that. This entire album became a process of figuring out what I was holding onto, what I needed to let go of and who I was becoming in the process. With "Vanity," I hope people walk away thinking a little differently about where they place their value. We're all drawn to the flower, but sometimes it feels like we're putting it on display before it's even had a chance to bloom. What's inside of us has more weight than the skin we're in, and I want people to know what's inside them and trust that it's enough.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

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