THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Grammy-nominated trio Midland’s Barely Blue is 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, singer-guitarist Mark Wystrach, bassist Cameron Duddy and guitarist Jess Carson lean into a space where solitude is acknowledged, life goes on and steel guitars are what binds it all together.
“We knew we wanted to go somewhere else,” Duddy says. “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: “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, which 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.
“Our sound and writing has always been evolving,” Duddy reflects. “We were three guys who met at a wedding, shot the shit about music and realized how much we had in common. We started singing together and were amazed at the sound of our combined voices. What started with Drinkin’ Problem was the beginning of a journey that’s always been interesting; it’s twisted and turned, but honestly, Mark, Jess and I have loved everywhere it’s taken us.”
