Dirty Dollhouse returns to its roots with the twangy new tune “Honey, They’re On To Us”

When we last heard from singer and songwriter Chelsea Mitchell, she was expanding the sound and scope of her long-running project Dirty Dollhouse on its 2017 release Vinyl Child. Originally a retro country-folk trio with singers Vanessa Winters and Amber Twait, it evolved into a fuller band and a more expansive sound that incorporated soul, rock, and a cool cool groove.

Since the promo run in support of that album wrapped up, Mitchell has played a few scattered shows but most kept the project relatively quiet until this week. A new song called “Honey, They’re On To Us” is out in the world today, a catchy three-minute tune about heartbreak that hearkens back to the retro-Nashville twang of the early Dirty Dollhouse work.

Mitchell tells Atwood Mag that the song as about the moment when a romance comes to a close not with a traumatic bang but with a distant whisper.

“I see this song as kind of a bittersweet goodbye to a relationship that went on too long. Sometimes you can’t admit that you’ve both grown apart. Maybe life threw some unfair punches that you couldn’t recover from. Maybe you haven’t felt like yourself for years and you can’t say why. When no one is unfaithful or does anything to hurt the other person, it only makes it harder to leave, even if it’s the right thing to do.”

Listen to “Honey, They’re Onto Us” below. Dirty Dollhouse performs at Boot and Saddle on Thursday, November 14th. Tickets and more info on the show can be found at the XPN Concert Calendar.