Singer/songwriter Levi Lowrey will release his sophomore album through Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Artists on February 25, 2014. Lowrey will offer a gratis download of the song “December Thirty-One” on December 31st for his fans at www.LeviLowrey.com.
The self-titled effort will showcase all original material and will feature Lowrey collaborating with a list of guest musicians that include Clay Cook (Zac Brown Band), fiddler Ross Holmes (Mumford & Sons/Cadillac Sky), Oliver Wood (The Wood Brothers) and acclaimed performer, producer and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Mac McAnally. This new project was executive produced by Zac Brown along with co-producers Matt Mangano and Clay Cook. It was recorded from start to finish in just two weeks at Southern Ground Studios in Nashville, TN.
This new album proves that Lowrey has no intention of shedding his image as an honest, life-as-an-open-book songwriter. Despite his growing success, Lowrey announces just 15 seconds into the disc that he is still as confused and unsure of his place in the world as anyone else. On the opening cut “Picket Fences,” he sings, “I have tried and I’ve tried, but I ain’t never satisfied this hunger burnin’ in my soul.” With Lowrey’s heart laid bare from the first notes, the 13 tracks that follow are equally confessional. He explores his own mortality through the eyes of his daredevil children in “Trying Not To Die,” and he tries to reconcile his faith with his history of self-destructive behaviors on “I’ve Held the Devil’s Hand.”
Lowrey’s sincerity and unflinching willingness to tell his life’s story in public is what gives his music an honest edge. “You gotta get to that point where if it scares you too much, don’t write about it,” states Lowrey. “I’ve tried to say, ‘I’m going to scare myself and see what happens. Hopefully the fallout will be worth it.’ And you know what? It usually is.”
True to his reputation as a talented writer, Lowrey penned four of the 14 songs by himself on the self-titled album and co-wrote the other 10 tracks. Each new story song offers brutally honest insights about life culled from his adventures in the real world. Lowrey is a happily married man who home schools his two children with his wife while working as a successful musician. On the other hand, he is a constant observer of the rough sides of life and he is not afraid to branch out and explore subjects that others might find too uncomfortable for casual conversation.
Lowrey toured extensively with Zac Brown Band to support his Southern Ground debut album, I Confess I Was A Fool. He wrote a No. 1 hit song and has several awards and nominations to his credit. Lowrey’s song “Colder Weather,” co-written with Zac Brown, was nominated for a CMA Song of the Year award and the cut went on to win the BMI Country Award for Top 50 Songs of the Year. Lowrey and Brown also co-wrote “The Wind,” from Brown’s No.1 Billboard albumUncaged, as well as the rollicking “Day For The Dead,” which is featured on Zac Brown Band’s recent projectThe Grohl Sessions Vol. 1.
