BAXTER,RAYLAND / Wide Awake

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. Rayland Baxter's Wide Awake is a dream realized. Since he first started writing music, this roving rock 'n' roll philosopher dreamed of a space where he could devote every waking hour to creating. The hard-touring musician finally found it in the form of an abandoned rubber band factory in Franklin, KY, where he covered the windows, threw a mattress on the floor, and with guitar and piano in tow, spent three straight months writing. At night, he would sit and listen to the sounds around him: coyotes, the howling wind, the faint prattle of the nightly TV news. The result of this isolation quest is Wide Awake, a ten-song collection that celebrates the best aspects of humanity and grasps at understanding the worst.