Get Drayton Farley on Your Radar Ahead of “Twenty On High”

If you can’t get enough of that country/rock/roots sound emanating from Alabama and underpinning excellently written songs that cut straight to the heart, you have little to no excuse to not sift Drayton Farley and his upcoming album Twenty On High to the very top of your 2023 depth chart. To be released on March 3rd via Hargrove Records in conjunction with Thirty Tigers, this highly anticipated debut album has been a long time coming for many devoted fans.

His first full band studio album still may still be weeks away, but Drayton has already been making a big impact with a couple of lo-fi, acoustic-only releases in the form of 2021’s A Hard up Life and 2022’s Walk Home EP. It was patently clear then that Drayon had something worth paying attention to, even if the lack of production kept the music from reaching a wider audience.

All of that changes with Twenty On High, as producer Sadler Vaden of Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit employs his fellow 400 Unit members Chad Gamble (drums) and Jimbo Hart (bass), as well as pianist Peter Levin and violinist Kristin Weber to bring Drayton Farley’s songs to life. Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield also appears on a song. Matt Ross-Spang also worked on the project as an engineer.

“We recorded ‘Twenty on High’ over the course of five days last summer at Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville, TN,” Drayton says. “It’s pretty well known by now that all of my releases to this point have been strictly acoustic solo performances and to be honest, they’ve mostly been demo style recordings that I made at home.”

“My new album will serve as my breakout record and I believe these ten new songs to be my absolute best work yet. The goal was to keep the songs honest and true and their stories at the forefront. To have the music serve the song but still make a record that would stand the test of time. I believe that’s exactly what we’ve done here and I couldn’t be prouder.”

Ahead of the new album, Drayton Farley has released the new song “Norfolk Blues,” which has a rugged blue collar theme and that unmistakable 400 Unit sound.

“It was mostly all of you believing in me and my songs, having a lot of great friends in my corner, a very small but mighty team behind me, and a whole lot of hard work… but it’s finally here. I wanted to make this record something I could be proud of forever, I wanted to keep it honest and keep the song at the forefront, to offer the world something true and real. Offer something that could stand the test of time and offer the world some of the better parts of me as a musician and songwriter.

Twenty On High is now available for pre-order.

Tracklist
1. Stop the Clock
2. Norfolk Blues
3. Wasted Youth
4. Above My Head
5. Twenty on High
6. Something Wrong (Inside My Head)
7. Devil’s In NOLA
8. How to Feel Again
9. The Alabama Moon
10. All My Yesterdays Have

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