Bonny Light Horseman will release their sophomore studio album, Rolling Golden Holy, through 37d03d Records on October 7. The trio consisting of Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats) and Josh Kaufman also detailed a run of fall headlining tour dates and unveiled Rolling Golden Holy lead single “California.”
Produced by Josh Kaufman, the follow-up to Bonny Light Horseman’s 2020 Grammy-nominated self-titled debut album was birthed from initial writing sessions that led to recording sessions at Aaron Dessner’s Long Pond facility in New York’s Hudson Valley and Dreamland Recording Studios near Woodstock. The latter is an old church described as the band’s “spiritual home.”
Rolling Golden Holy features 11 new originals that as per a press release, “follow the paths of the traditional tunes the band cherishes to new musical and lyrical frontiers, and give the sounds and situations of history the gravity and shape of now.” Mitchell, Johnson and Kaufman are joined on the LP by drummer JT Bates and bassist/saxophonist Mike Lewis.
Eric D. Johnson shared the following about lead single “California”:
“This one started off as a little crooked minor-key old timey tune. Then the three of us took it through the ringer together and it became what you’re hearing now. We sat in a room in the woods of New York and clawed and pawed at it until it turned into a little bittersweet shuffler. Our first record was largely centered on the old world, whether it was some sort of mythical sweeping landscape on some British Isle, or maybe the old cities of the American East. This is probably our first West Coast song. It’s a sad one, a story about pulling up roots, new beginnings, goodbyes, early morning long drives, riding into the sunrise instead of the sunset. They usually don’t end movies riding into the sunrise but this movie has that scene.”
Stream Bonny Light Horseman’s “California”:
Bonny Light Horseman are currently touring in support of Bon Iver. The three-piece is currently slated to begin a fall headlining run in Sonoma, California on September 30. From there, the band will hit the West Coast cities of San Francisco, Seattle, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles in October. December tour dates include stops in Nashville, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Brooklyn. Click the link below for a full list of Bonny Light Horseman tour dates.
Rolling Golden Holy Tracklist
- Exile
- Comrade Sweetheart
- California
- Summer Dream
- Gone By Fall
- Sweetbread
- Someone To Weep For Me
- Fleur De Lis
- Once On Another Day
- Fair Annie
- Cold Rain and Snow
