"Lighter" EP release show with Gwen Levey & The Breakdown with special guest MIke Younger

Name: "Lighter" EP release show with Gwen Levey & The Breakdown with special guest MIke Younger
Start: 2025-10-28T18:00:00-05:00
Location: Dee's Lounge

Schedule

Tue, 28 Oct, 2025 at 06:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Dee's Lounge | Madison, TN

Gwen Levey and the Breakdown to celebrate the brand new EP release "Lighter" with the support of Mike Younger and Fiona Mara and emceed by TN Representative Aftyn Behn.
Gwen Levey enters her Lighter era with songs about leaving toxicity
Her messages grind through clearly as evidenced by the many plays her initial single releases have, with tons of views & ruffled feathers. - Americana Highways
When creativity sparks, Gwen Levey and The Breakdown respond with empowering songs from Lighter, her band’s third EP out on October 24th. These songs feature words like survivor, therapy, and staying clear of the haters. This EP follows the band’s
2023 viral hit, “Barefoot & Pregnant,” which ruled the internet airwaves from YouTube to legislative rallies and CMT video rotation. The video for the song has a running tab of
over 20 million views and listens across her platforms. A new addition to her accolades is a show out in California called Music California TV, which will air the video on PBS in August during their fourth season. This comes after the Best Shorts Competition, which Oscar and Emmy voters vote on, nominated Gwen for a Humanitarian Award for her work.

Lighter was produced by Levey and Marcus Davis at Indie Luna Studios and their home studio, Feet In The Grass Studios, in Nashville, TN. The first single, “Nights Like You,” will be released on August 1st, accompanied by a lyric video. A core group of players was hand-picked to back Gwen up, as she calls them The Breakdown: long-time friend James Britton on guitars and bass, Marcus Davis on drums, percussion, and synthesizers, and Amy Frederick on piano, organ, and synthesizers.
“If my previous EP, Not The Girl Next Door, was about all of the toxicity I was experiencing the first few decades of my life, Lighter is about shedding all that sh*t and stepping into my healing era. The EP represents the light I’ve been able to find to carry
me through some very dark days.” – Gwen Levey
Gwen Levey is the total package: a pure, big booming singing voice paired with insightful and sucker punch writing. She grabs the listener with songs like “Nights Like You”, which is about finding true love and “wanting to stay in on a Friday night together rather than partying and constantly searching for that missing piece in your life.” Gwen pokes fun at herself with “Therapy”, smiling while confessing, “I’m thrilled to have
written a pro-therapy song, which serves as my social commentary on mental health. This is very much written in the same satirical way as some of my other social commentary songs.”
And of course, the crowning jewel of the EP, “Lighter,” is an upbeat song with an anthemic-like message: “Being a survivor has given me the voice I have today, which I hope to give to other survivors.” The video, shot in a majestic Tennessee forest and
ending in a solitary creek, gives the song that soul-cleansing feel.
Since moving to Nashville, TN, from her home state of Virginia in 2017, Gwen hasn’t taken her foot off the gas pedal. Between live shows, studio work, and doing the Nashville hang, she dove into songwriting with anyone and everyone she could. After scoring a development deal in 2018 with Go Long Entertainment under Sony, she began writing with Will Rambeaux (John Michael Montgomery, Faith Hill, Patty Loveless) and Sherrie Austin (Blake Shelton, George Strait) to expand her musical landscape. She was able to carve out a good-sized corner to stand in, with her first few singles landing on major Spotify and Apple Music playlists, until that fateful day in June 2022 when the landmark right Roe v. Wade was overturned, and she turned to her guitar for her reply. In collaboration with Rambeaux and Austin, out came “Barefoot & Pregnant”, and the heavens opened up. Gwen took this as a sign to make it her mission to use her art to fuel her activism and got on her soapbox about the importance of women’s rights to create the award-winning “Barefoot & Pregnant” music video. The song traveled far and wide, and Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go’s claimed it to be “one of the most important songs of our times.”
“Barefoot & Pregnant” led Levey to become a part of the intense political climate heating up in Tennessee, as the Tennessee Three’s Gloria Johnson and Senator Charlane Oliver became a fan of the song and invited the singer-songwriter to perform at a press
conference in front of a 20-foot IUD to raise awareness for contraception and IVF protections in the deep red state. Because of these efforts, Governor Bill Lee signed protections into law nearly a year later, making Tennessee the first red state to protect
the right to birth control and IVF. Being a small part of this decision fills Levey with immense pride.
As a viral content creator with a big voice, Gwen was invited to the first-ever Trending Up conference in Washington, D.C., in May 2024. There she had the opportunity to connect with other viral content creators, expanding her network, and meet with politicians in D.C. who support her music and activism. Working with other survivors and creators, she co-founded Rise Above Justice Movement, a viral coalition of survivors of violence that has grown rapidly since August 2024. What’s their theme song, you ask? Why it’s “Barefoot & Pregnant”, of course.
“I knew I had to write the song because I’m a survivor, so co-founding an organization that helps survivors just made sense,” Gwen says. “It continues the work that keeps me going every day.”
While a lot of Gwen’s following keeps up with her content online, those who make it to her live shows are always treated to an engaging time. In 2018, she experienced her very first standing ovation playing a sold-out show at the legendary 3rd & Lindsley in Nashville, where she would later return to host her “Barefoot & Pregnant” release party in September 2023. Since then, she has made many appearances headlining various Tennessee Pride Festivals, performing at the historic Bluebird Cafe, as well as Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta and The Bowery in NYC. Her advocacy work led her to appearances as the headliner at the 2024 Day for Democracy, the 2025 People’s March, and Network Nova’s 2025 Women’s Power Summit in Washington, D.C. If you could compare Gwen’s songs, it might be a cross between Stevie Nicks, Maren Morris, and Blondie, just a ball of radical badassery, trying to change the world one note at a time as her musical vision keeps getting bigger and bolder.
For more about Gwen:
https://www.gwenleveyandthebreakdown.com
To stream Lighter: https://tinyurl.com/2w6r946j
For album assets:
For publicity: Jill Kettles – Miss Jill PR – T) 404-213-8542 E)
[email protected]