Song of the Week: ‘My Grass Is Blue’

 Every Wednesday we publish a Song of the Week in the Morning Report to spice up your week with some local tunes.

San Diego County is a strange place. If you travel far enough in each cardinal direction, you’ll find something totally different: the bustle of Tijuana to the south, the yawning Pacific Ocean to the west, the neat suburbs and eventually Los Angeles to the north or the sparse mountainous towns that give way to the desert in the east.  

It’s in the last direction that, perhaps surprisingly for many who only see San Diego as a place to dip your toes in the ocean, a unique brand of Southern California cowboy culture persists. It’s also there that I imagine local country singer-songwriter Kimmi Bitter sitting on some porch nestled in the shade of an oak tree, strumming away on her acoustic guitar.  

Kimmi Bitter, “My Grass Is Blue”: Bitter’s sugary sweet voice is the stuff of classic country legends. It’s the kind of voice that seems more apt to spill out of a dusty jukebox in a 1960s country saloon than to be prompted by pressing play on Spotify. 

So, it’s no surprise that she’s been compared to titanic figures of early country like Patsy Cline. But it’s not just her vocals that carry a shade of the Nashville legend. Bitter’s compositions are simple, delicate and timeless, eschewing the empty bravado of modern country for the gentle croon of the genre’s past.  

“My Grass Is Blue,” which was nominated for “Song of the Year” at the 2023 San Diego Music Awards, showcases both of those traits. In it, Bitter laments a love lost, as a lap steel guitar glides tremulously and a chorus of voices “ooh,” plaintively. It’s an old recipe, but one that’s earnestness is still refreshing. 

Like what you hear? Check out Kimmi Bitter at Kensington Club on Friday, Feb. 23. 

Do you have a “Song of the Week” suggestion? Shoot us an email and a sentence or two about why you’ve been bumping this song lately. Friendly reminder: all songs should be by local artists!