Singer-songwriter Rayland Baxter detailed If I Were A Butterfly, his fourth studio album and first of original material in four years. The Nashville-based musician previewed the 10-song set, which is due out through ATO Records on November 4, by releasing its title track and a video for “If I Were A Butterfly” directed by Citizen Kane Wayne. Additionally, Rayland confirmed a series of fall tour dates.
Baxter decamped to Thunder Sound, an abandoned rubber band factory transformed into a studio in Kentucky, for over a year to begin work on his long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s Wide Awake. Later sessions were held in California, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. Rayland produced If I Were A Butterfly with Tim O’Sullivan and Kai Welch.
Rayland finished the LP after the death of his dad, famed pedal steel guitarist Bucky Baxter (Bob Dylan, Steve Earle & The Dukes). Bucky contributed to an album described as examining “loss and existential ruminations on happiness and freedom.” Other collaborators include Shakey Graves, Zac Cockrell (Alabama Shakes), Lennon Stella, Sophia Rose, Motown drummer Miss Bobbye Hall, members of Cage The Elephant and Morning Teleportation’s Travis Goodwin.
Baxter was inspired by the sounds around him on If I Were A Butterfly, his debut release as a producer. “Sometimes the bullfrogs in the pond outside would pulse in a certain tempo and I’d apply that to a song, or I’d hear a bird chirping and it would inspire me to add harmonica in a particular place,” Rayland said. “I could be walking around this massive building in the middle of the night and the air-conditioning would turn on, and it’d give me the idea to include a synth part that holds a similar note. I’d wait for those moments to happen and whenever I tried to force anything, the music usually rejected it.”
The title track opens If I Were A Butterfly and incorporates a recording of Rayland singing as a youngster. “I liked the idea of the first voice on the record being me as a little kid, not knowing where I’d be today,” Baxter explained.
Watch the official music video for Rayland Baxter’s “If I Were A Butterfly” below:
Rayland Baxter will start touring in support of If I Were A Butterfly this November. The first leg of the run begins on release day, November 4, with an in-store at Grimey’s in Nashville. Baxter then hits Atlanta, Charleston, Nashville, New York City and Philadelphia. The fall excursion announced today ends at The Hamilton in Washington D.C. on November 19.
If I Were A Butterfly Tracklist
- If I Were A Butterfly
- Billy Goat
- Rubberband Man
- Buckwheat
- Tadpole
- Dirty Knees
- Graffiti Street
- Violence
- Thunder Sound
- My Argentina
