Rayland Baxter shares new single and video ahead of new album ‘True Violet’ release this Friday
Today, Rayland Baxter shares his new single “Up and Down a Mountain,” which documents the chaos of falling in and out of love in Sisyphean terms. Released alongside the official music video, the song comes just days before Baxter’s new album ‘True Violet’ releases this Friday 23 October on ATO Records.
WATCH ‘UP AND DOWN A MOUNTAIN’ VIDEO HERE
Baxter on the new single: “I tried to squeeze a lot into this song. The chaos of falling in and out of love, the treacherous path through it all. The lies. The heartache. The ups and downs of life, the ups and downs within any given day. The tranquility up on top. The walk through the park holding hands only for our hands to be on fire by the time we get back home.”
Co-produced by Nick Waterhouse and Paul Butler, True Violet captures the slow, steady metamorphosis of becoming someone new. “Up and Down a Mountain” follows Baxter’s other recent singles “Bolly Plateau,” “The Fool” and album opener “Better Man,” which was co-written with and features background vocals from Tyler Ballgame. Baxter performed several new songs for a Relix session late last month, and the album is already garnering attention from BrooklynVegan, Glide, All Country News, JamBase and more.
Baxter spent the years surrounding his 2022 album If I Were A Butterfly touring heavily while navigating difficult relationships, personal loss, and the death of his father, Bucky Baxter. A multi-instrumentalist best known for his work with Bob Dylan and as a member of Steve Earle and The Dukes, Baxter’s father had shaped every previous chapter of his career. After returning to his quiet Tennessee hometown, Baxter found himself with the stillness to confront the patterns and emotions he had spent years outrunning. Turning to his sister for advice, he found the encouragement to dig deeper in his writing.
From 70 songs penned over a years-long period of solitude, True Violet slowly unfolded as a sweeping, tender, and sometimes raucous ode to reckoning and reconciliation. Though the writing process was solitary, the production became a story of friendship, family, and collaboration. Recording the album was punctuated by moments of doubt—scrapping songs, returning to the drawing board, and calling in friends. Fittingly, Baxter left the sequencing of True Violet to his friend Shakey Graves (Alejandro Rose-Garcia).
These days, Baxter has a steadier hand on the sails of his life, and you can hear it in his voice as he sings about living inside a feeling for too long and the hard-won relief of finally moving beyond it. True Violet is about what remains after the storm passes: the lessons, the scars, the gratitude, and the possibility of beginning again. The medicine of this album lies in the contrast between the hardship that inspired it and the clarity, patience, and community that finally brought it into focus.
‘True Violet’ tracklisting
1) Better Man
2) Up and Down a Mountain
3) Bad Love
4) Haymaker
5) What a Day My Friend
6) The Fool
7) Bolly Plateau
8) Real Bad Rut
9) Dreamin About
10) Never Do
11) Oh My Love
