"We wear holes in all our highways until they keep us up at night.Eyes wide open, dreaming 'til the darkness turns to light.
And we run from those who love us, yet their prayers continue on
and we'll pass up a sure thing just to gamble on a song."
It's the 40th anniversary of the band that Nashville didn't want because it didn't know what to do with them. "We'd just been turned down by every label," recalls Mark Miller in the trailer for the yet-to-be-publicly-released documentary about the band Sawyer Brown. "Every time, we heard, It's too much. You're just too much for us. We don't get it."
It was only after winning the casting show Star Search in 1984 that the situation slowly began to change for the country-rock band. Over the next 20 years, Sawyer Brown became most likely the most distinctive live band in the country genre over several phases. And with 3 number-1 and 16 top-10 hits from 18 studio albums, they were also one of the most consistently successful ones.
So on the occasion of the band's 40th anniversary, and to the delight of the fans, the band is now returning not only with an autobiography from lead singer Mark Miller (The Boys And Me - My Life in the Country Music Supergroup Sawyer Brown), but on March 8th, 2024 also with the first album of new music in over 10 years. The project is titled "Desperado Troubadours" and includes 10 new songs written by the band itself, with important contributions from Mac McAnally and Cody Jinks.
Together with Mark Miller, Blake Shelton signed on as producer. This collaboration came about after the latter mentioned in an interview that Sawyer Brown was his favorite band and 'The Race Is On' was the first record he bought. "Literally I think Blake called me within ten minutes," Mark Miller said when the band contacted the Oklahoman, according to nashvillelifestyles.com. "You guys are my heroes!"
"So, I went out to Oklahoma and spent a couple days with Blake, and what we came up with was to just make the next '90s Sawyer Brown record. That's what we did, and it really does just sound like the next Sawyer Brown record."
The first preview song from the album was released in October 2023. 'Under This Ole Hat' not only proves that the distinctive voice of now 65-year-old Mark Miller seems not to have aged, but also that the band can remain true to their unique style, even though 20 years from their last radio hit have passed. The accompanying video to the song, which was released at the beginning of 2024 and whose production is somewhat reminiscent of 'She And I' by Alabama, also brings the perfect visual complement to it's sound: colorful, lively and sparkling with energy. Actually perfect radio hit material!
It was a more than successful decision not to produce the album with the electronic echo sounds that are so common today, but rather rely on real instruments throughout. While this may sound old-fashioned to some, it actually brings a refreshing sound that too many in the 21st century don't seem to remember anymore.
So the uptempo 'Nashville Cat' does sound like a live band that enjoys making music, while the midtempo 'I Wouldn't Change A Thing' looks back with contentment on an eventful life as a musician.
More unusual than the story of it is the title of the song 'Socrates'. Typically written by Mac McAnally, the quiet ballad tells of a mechanic full of wisdom, which is why everyone called him Socrates:
Are you bein' loved, boys, or bein' used? Runnin' wild or bein' free?"
He said, "The answers to your questions are more questions such as these."
And everybody called him "Socrates".
'The One I've Got' is a love song full of happiness in which the band picks up the pace again, while the satisfaction of success achieved in 'God Bless This Road', written by Mark Miller and keyboarder Gregg 'Hobie' Hubbard shines unmistakably. It is a touching testament after 40 years of band history.
faith and hope carry us far and wide.
Race the moon, chase the sun before it goes down,
heroes die, we stand here on their shoulders.
Music lives on and never gets older,
now we hand off the torch to the new kids in town.
Mac McAnally also wrote the entertaining uptempo story about sleepless Billy ('Goodnight And Good Morning').
"[The song] 'The Walk' was my experience with losing my grandfather," recalls Mark Miller at people.com. Which leads into a follow-up on the new album. "Hobie actually had the title 'This Side of the Sky' and this idea for the song for a long time. He had lost his mother, and I lost my mother right before COVID."
"I know when I lost my mom, it was just weird. I kept on wanting to pick up the phone and call her. And that's kind of what this song is about. It’s about still being able to have that conversation on ‘this side of the sky’ because we know where they are."
the ones that keep me remembering.
I'm gonna see you in the sweet by-and-by
and that's the news,
from this side of the sky.
Mamma, just stay tuned
and I'll have more news,
from this side of the sky.
With 'Get Me To The Stage On Time', the title song to the documentary about the band, Sawyer Brown steps it up one more time, before the album ends far too quickly with the quiet, road warrior song, 'Desperado Troubadours'.
too stubborn not to do things our own way.
Yeah, we're cowboys and hippies and gypsies at our core,
free-wheeling, rock-and-rolling desperado troubadours.
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