Butch Walker To Release New Album Stay Gold on August 26 Jun 09, 2016
Grammy nominated guitar-slinger, troublemaker, raconteur, producer, and Georgia boy Butch Walker announced today his 8th studio album Stay Gold, to be released on August 26 via Dangerbird Records. The album is available for pre-order now on iTunes or on CD & vinyl from Butch Walker’s webstore. In addition, Walker will set out on a North American tour with openers The Wind and The Wave and Suzanne Santos kicking off on August 17th at Orlando’s The Social. Tickets will be on-sale beginning Friday, June 10th at 10am local time
Walker’s first single off the album, “East Coast Girl” is now available to stream on Spotify or an instant download when Stay Gold is pre-ordered on iTunes.
As a writer of dozens of songs with hooks that stick in your head, Rolling Stone has called Walker, “one of America’s best singer-songwriters,” as he has penned choruses you want to sing (or shout) along to from acts including Frank Turner, Brian Fallon, Taylor Swift, and many more. He is a teller of authentic stories of exploits and predicaments and romance that are filled with optimism; builder of albums with no boundaries – rock, pop, Americana, singer-songwriter…or, as he says, “I think it’s all just rock & roll.”
Walker’s last album, 2015’s Ryan Adams’ produced Afraid Of Ghosts, was a cathartic record that dealt with a devastating personal experience, the passing of his father. This one’s a celebration. In Butch’s words, “After coming out of the AOG album cycle and tour where, at the risk of sounding ridiculous, I spent a lot of time on stage bawling my eyes out, I felt a very calm sense of peace. Like I’d done what I needed to do to get it outta my system. Every song that came after that was almost a nostalgic, celebratory…for lack of a better word – ‘jam.’ And the songs just kept coming to me, which was good because that’s not always the case!”
The stories on Stay Gold are very well fleshed out, something Butch credits to “growing up on some of those dudes – Elton John and the (Bernie) Taupin lyrics, Springsteen and Joel.” It kicks off with the title song, a straight-ahead rocker, loaded with swagger and lyrics that call out native GA locales featuring a nod to the S.E. Hinton novel (and later, a Coppola film), The Outsiders. The lead single “East Coast Girl” and “Mexican Coke” are inspired by Walker’s move to Los Angeles, the former effectively combining an anthemic chorus with spoken verses, recorded conversationally on an iPhone. The writerly eye for detail is apparent in one of Stay Gold‘s standout tracks, “Wilder In The Heart”, describing an airport meeting with a girlfriend.
The album also includes “Descending”, a beautiful, decidedly tender duet with country singer Ashley Monroe about survival and staying on the course of love. Overall, Stay Gold is clearly Walker’s most articulate to date. When asked if the stories are real or imagined, he replies, “All the songs are half true.”
Track List:
01) Stay Gold
02) East Coast Girl
03) Wilder In The Heart
04) Ludlow Expectations
05) Descending
06) Irish Exit
07) Mexican Coke
08) Can We Just Not Talk About Last Night
09) Spark Lost
10) Record Store
Tour Dates:
08/17 – Orlando, FL @ The Social*^
08/18 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club*^
08/19 – Nashville, TN @ Cannery Ballroom*^
08/20 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle*^
08/22 – Charleston, SC @ The Pour House*^
08/23 – Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theatre*^
08/24 – Washington, DC @ U-Street Music Hall*^
08/26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theater of Living Arts*^
08/27 – Asbury Park, NJ @ House of Independence*^
08/29 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza*^
09/01 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair*^
09/02 – South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground*^
09/03 – Toronto, ON @ Virgin Mobile Mod Club*
09/06 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Small’s*^
09/07 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues*^
09/09 – Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrews Hall^
09/10 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues^
09/11 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre*^
09/13 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre*^
09/17 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom*
09/18 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall*
* w/ The Wind and The Wave
^ w/ Suzanne Santos