Mark Bryan is about feeling something and making you feel something. The energy in the buildings around the country that rocked again with the songs that made Hootie & The Blowfish one of the biggest-selling acts in music history, is all here on his upcoming new album, Midlife Priceless and this new track, “A Little More Rock ‘N Roll”. MusicTAP is delighted to be able to share this with you.
To hear it from Mr. Bryan himself: “it was May of 2019,” he remembers. “Hootie was about to embark on our first U.S. tour in over ten years, and we had just made our first full-length album in over ten years. Capitol Nashville decided a single for country radio would give us the best shot at getting played.
I immediately thought of my ridiculously talented friend, Steven Fiore from the band Young Mister. I’m a huge fan of the tunes that he writes for his band, but he also has this stealth ability to craft a perfect pop-country song. So I told him about the situation with Hootie, and Capitol, and he sent me the demo for “A Little More Rock ‘N Roll”.
I felt an immediate, nostalgic warmth when I heard it. Capitol sent us some other songs, including a gem Chris Stapleton had written, “Hold On”, and there was no denying it was a solid choice, but I couldn’t get Steven’s song out of my head.
In March of 2020, I started tracking for Midlife Priceless. I laid a couple of 12-string guitar tracks down for “A Little More Rock ‘N Roll”, and it was already special.
I had my friends Tim Nielsen (bass), and Matt Zutell (drums) come over, and I played lead, electric guitar as we tracked along with the 12-strings. I felt like I should add lap-steel to the track, to try and mix a little twang in with the rock ’n’ roll we were creating.
We put it through a Leslie speaker cabinet, and it just put this sweet icing on everything. It started to sound like a single!”
You can hear the entire conversation with Mark Bryan about “A Little More Rock ‘N Roll” below – along with this dynamic new track.
Midlife Priceless will be released on Friday, April 2nd, 2021
https://www.markbryanmusic.com/