SHELBY — Ricky Mitchell was searching for 18 months before he found a release.
His latest project, Wishing Wells, revolves around forgiveness of a past love affair he was in before moving to Shelby, where he currently resides. The album will be released on March 17.
“It comes from seeing a high school girlfriend announcing she was getting married,” the musician said of his third full-length album. “I was just like, ‘Oh good. I didn’t ruin her life.’
“While, I’m certain she had forgiven me, I don’t think I had forgiven myself.”
Mitchell said his album revolves around that sentiment with each song being a separate aspect of that story — him forgiving someone, forgiving himself or the dangers of overreacting to blips in life.
“I think for me, it was mostly when I had a real area of trauma that happened. I got into a relationship that was really bad. It was abusive towards me, and I ended up drinking a lot and sleeping on different couches,” he said. “It was rock bottom. Then I realized I didn’t want to be angry at people.
“For the past several years, that’s my way of approaching life: there’s not really that much in life that is worth getting to that point. It’s not worth spending every day even slightly reminiscing on that level of stress. If you can avoid all of that, it’s a good thing.”
Mitchell said being able to come off of that line of thinking made forgiveness easier.
In his song, Rusted, the last song on the album, he sings, “I don’t want you back, in fact I’m happy where I am. I just thought you should know that tin roof from way back when hasn’t rusted quite enough to forget.”
This line, he said, spells out his emotion towards his now-married high school girlfriend.
“I realized for the most part this was not this horrible thing that had me feeling guilty for all these years; it was a good thing,” he said. “I’m just glad it’s over there and I’m here where I’m happy.”
Ricky Mitchell and his band the Yak Pack will host a release party at the Richland Academy of the arts March 17 from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
He and the band are set to perform at Richland Source’s Newsroom After Hours, May 18.
