49 Winchester – Leavin’ This Holler
49 Winchester – Leavin’ This Holler
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital
Label: New West Records
Release: 2024
Release date: August 2, 2024
The 10-song set was produced by the band and Stewart Myers and features appearances by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, singer-songwriter Maggie Antone, fiddler Philip Bowen, and guitarist Cole Chafin
‘Leavin’ This Holler’ is the highly anticipated follow up to their New West debut ‘Fortune Favors the Bold.’ Met with overwhelming critical acclaim, Rolling Stone called them “Country Music’s Buzziest of Buzz Bands,” and also named it one of the “25 Best Country and Americana Albums of 2022.” Bandcamp named Fortune Favors the Bold one of the “Best Country Records of 2022,” as did No Depression, Holler, PopMatters, Whiskey Riff, WMOT, and more. The album quickly generated over 150 million global streams and the band also received a nomination for “Best Duo or Group” at last year’s Americana Music Awards.
Last October, while standing on stage in front of 20,000 people at London’s O2 Arena, it dawned on 49 Winchester lead singer & guitarist Isaac Gibson that on the same day, exactly 10 years ago, he formed his rising alt-country band. “There’s been nothing in my life that’s ever lasted a decade,” Gibson says. “We had just gotten out of high school when we played our first show — 10 years later, we’re on the road in the UK and Europe with Luke Combs.”
Gibson felt it was a moment where he could honestly reflect on the hard-earned, unrelenting determination and grit within the band that’s brought them to this current juncture of increasing notoriety. “It’s a testament to the uncommon fact that we’re musicians from a very specific place in the world,” Gibson says. “And it’s a testament to viewing each other more as family than as friends.”
Hailing from Castlewood, Virginia (population: 1,122) in Southern Appalachia, a place where opportunity seldom knocks, 49 Winchester came to fruition when Gibson, his childhood best friend, Chase Chafin, and his hometown crony, guitarist Bus Shelton, decided to step off the front porch (on Winchester Street) and take their music to whatever stage would have them.
49 Winchester shared the album highlight “Yearnin’ For You”. Reflecting on the song, Gibson says, “When I wrote this song, I felt like it really encapsulated what it’s like to be a musician, and more specifically that other side of the coin that fans don’t see as often. The people you miss so badly, the sacrifice that it takes to forge out a living. I think more importantly it’s a love song. It’s about reuniting with the one that holds you down, and how great it is to finally be back where you are loved. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
Captured in a handful of studios around the country whenever there was a rare moment between relentless touring schedules, the album has 49 Winchester’s signature sound of rollicking country and searing rock music, but with a matured approach this go-around. Leavin’ This Holler offers up a more focused sense of self, a new bountiful level of intent and purpose. Gibson says, “We wanted to explore every possible sound we could on this record. No stone left unturned sonically — we got it exactly where we wanted it.”
May 23rd – Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Paradiso
Website: https://49winchester.com/
Tracks:
01. Favor
02. Hillbilly Happy
03. Yearnin’ For You
04. Make It Count
05. Leavin’ This Holler
06. Fast Asleep
07. Tulsa
08. Rest of My Days
09. Traveling Band
10. Anchor