Today, Raleigh, NC’s Chatham County Line share the lyric video for the title track of their forthcoming ninth studio album, Strange Fascination, and announce they have moved up the release date to April 24 (originally May 15). A staple of the North Carolina music scene for two decades, the band Introduce a new sound and line up with Strange Fascination, which is now available for pre-order.
“We thought folks could use a little good news these days, so we decided to bump up our album release a few weeks,” Dave Wilson. “Music makes quite the medicine in these ever-changing times, so we hope these nine songs help to cure folks of any socially distanced blues.”
The lush and tender title track, which features Sharon Van Etten on backing vocals, further represents a new era for the band, marking the first guest vocals since the band’s debut. “Strange Fascination” also inspired the group to move away from their signature single microphone set up in live shows in an effort to translate that high-fidelity to an audience.
The band will kick off a tour in support of the release with a hometown release show June 6, at the North Carolina Museum of Art. A full list of dates is below.
Produced by Dave Wilson and the band, the album was recorded at Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium Recordings in Kernersville, NC. CCL was joined in-studio by Yan Westerlund (Mipso, Phil Cook) on drums, and the album was mixed and engineered by Chris Boerner (Hiss Golden Messenger, The Foreign Exchange).
Marking a turning point in their steady growth and evolution over a 20-year career, the album serves as both the final release with co-founding banjo player Chandler Holt, the first line-up change since 2001 and the first to feature drums on every song.
The core of CCL—Dave Wilson (guitar/vocals/songwriter), John Teer (mandolin/fiddle/vocals), and Greg Readling (bass/pedal steel/piano)—now welcome percussion to its line-up with long time friend of the band Dan Hall on drums. “We’ve had drums on several albums, most notably 2010’s Wildwood, and our audience always responded well to those tunes,” says Dave Wilson. A 10th-anniversary special edition of Wildwood is out now.
CHATHAM COUNTY LINE TOUR DATES
June 6 – North Carolina Museum of Art – Raleigh, NC
June 26 – Lee Street Theatre – Salisbury, NC
June 27 – Yadkin Cultural Arts Center – Yadkinville, NC
September 5 – The Earl Scruggs Music Festival – Mill Spring, NC
