Fast-rising Virginia alt-country band 49 Winchester is prepping a new album, Leavin’ This Holler, which will be released on August 2 by New West Records.
The itinerant group from the tiny town of Castlewood made the record in various studios across the country with help from producer Stewart Myers. In the past few years band founder Isaac Gibson and company have been touring relentlessly, gigging in Europe, opening huge venues for the likes of Tyler Childers and Luke Combs, and selling out large theaters on their own in the South and beyond.
This week the group unveiled “Fast Asleep” from the new album. It’s a big-hearted twangy rock ballad that reminds of a full-throated Chris Stapleton epic.
Gibson first wrote the song when he was 19, but he decided to dust it off for the band’s new effort, giving it a fresh take with a sweeping string arrangement that features the Czech National Symphony Orchestra.
“This tune is an emotional sledgehammer,” Gibson said in a statement. “I wrote it when I was 19 years old, as one of the very first 49 Winchester songs. We used to play it live, back in those earliest days, but it somehow worked its way out of the setlist. We knew it was still a great song and wanted to breathe new life into it, and I think we achieved that.”
49 Winchester has a big summer ahead on the road. The band is playing Bonnaroo and the Grand Ole Opry. It also has some cool headline gigs in the Blue Ridge region, including two nights at the Lime Kiln Theater in Lexington, Va., on June 21-22, and a lead spot on the line-up at the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion on September 14. Click here for more tour dates.
Photo by Thomas Crabtree
