The Dave Cobb-produced LP is due this fall
Midland has announced Barely Blue, an eight-song exploration of loneliness, masculinity and resilience in the face of heartache. Evoking near-empty bars and heat waves shimmering across the blacktop, the new album brings to life the generosity of spirit required to love, lose, and move on. Recorded with nine-time Grammy winner Dave Cobb at Georgia Mae Studios in Savannah, GA, lead singer/guitarist Mark Wystrach, bassist/vocalist Cameron Duddy and guitarist/vocalist Jess Carson lean into a space where solitude is acknowledged, life goes on and steel guitars are often what binds it all together.
The trio has also shared the album’s opening track “Lucky Sometimes,” along with an official video directed by Harper Smith, and announced The Get Lucky Tour that kicks off on September 19th and will make stops at Red Rocks Amphitheater on October 12th with Jackson Dean and at the ACL Live in their hometown of Austin, TX on December 20th. Tickets go on sale this Friday, June 28th.
“‘Lucky Sometimes’ is a get-up and go, hot streak, feel-good anthem for when it feels like you just can’t lose,” Mark Wystrach explains. “The arrangement is sparse with a high and lonesome groove that crests with soaring harmonies on the hook. It’s the first song on the album and an introduction to the new sonic landscape that we found with Dave Cobb at the helm.”
“We knew we wanted to go somewhere else,” Cameron Duddy adds about the creation of Barely Blue. “We are all big believers in a certain time and place, a sense of classic country that comes from roadhouses and bad coffee, miles and miles and miles on the road – and the idea that, even though we’re all happy, love and life falls apart, but that doesn’t mean you have to, too. When we were writing these songs, it was a trip into all the things in country music we love. You don’t hear much of this kind of unfiltered, hard stuff that comes with the great guitar sounds, the deep harmonies and shuffles you can tuck into. But that’s the essence of what Midland is – and Dave Cobb brought a new altitude to our sound.”
Wystrach adds, “Dave Cobb had been a producer we wanted to work with since we first heard Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. Dave’s eclectic musical background and the way he approaches recording as an experience and not a task made him the perfect match for us. On Barely Blue, we feel like Dave helped us find the sound we’ve been searching for for a long time.”
Barely Blue highlights the trio’s signature celestial harmonies that harken back to the Laurel Canyon-lushness of The Mamas & the Papas, the more muscular parts of Buffalo Springfield and the cosmic American sounds of The Flying Burrito Brothers’ The Gilded Palace of Sin or the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo. For those feeling good, it’s the sound of these tracks and how the songs move. For those feeling the ache, it’s the truth and the forbearance that’ll get them to the next horizon. For everyone in between, it’s an honest accounting of how we all face disappointment and make life work in spite of itself.
“Lucky Sometimes” follows the release of “Old Fashioned Feeling.”
Midland 2024 The Get Lucky Tour Dates:
Sept 19 – Cincinnati, OH @ The Andrew J Brady Music Center
Sept 20 – Chicago, IL @ The Riviera Theatre
Sept 21 – Council Bluffs, IA @ Harrah’s Stir Cove
Sept 27 – Anderson, SC @ Wendell’s Outdoor
Sept 28 – St. Augustine, FL @ The St. Augustine Amphitheatre
Oct 3 – Birmingham, AL @ Avondale Brewing Company
Oct 4 – Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy
Oct 5 – Cherokee, NC @ Cherokee Tribal Fair
Oct 9 – El Paso, TX @ Speaking Rock Entertainment Center
Oct 11 – Grand Junction, CO @ Amphitheater at Las Colonias Park
Oct 12 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Oct 24 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union Event Center
Oct 26 – Kennewick, WA @ Toyota Center
Nov 2 – San Antonio, TX @ Boeing Center at Tech Port
Nov 29 – Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall
Nov 30 – Dallas, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
Dec 6 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Theater at Virgin Hotels
Dec 7 – Albuquerque, NM @ Rio Rancho Events Center
Dec 20 – Austin, TX @ ACL Live Moody Theater
