Americana Highways presents both the album premiere of Zachary Lucky’s Midwestern (due out Friday) and his video for “Rock and Roll Dad.” Midwestern was recorded and mixed in Hamilton, ON at Catherine North Studios, produced by Dan Hosh and Zachary Lucky, engineered and mixed by Dan Hosh with assistance from Will Crann and Scott Peacock. Additional recording was done by Ivan Rosenberg at the Schtood Recording Studio in Toronto, ON and by Jamie Sitar at the Song Shop in Winnipeg, MB. Mastered in Ottawa, ON by Philip Shaw Bova. Artwork and design by Kendel Vreeling. Midwestern was recorded live as Zachary Lucky (guitars, vocals), Mitchell Thomson (upright bass), Ivan Rosenberg (dobro, vocals), John Showman (fiddle) and Will Fisher (drums). Additional performances by Kevin Neal (pedal steel), Meg Contini (vocals), Patrick Gushe (mandolin), Richard Inman (vocals) and Kristin Cavoukian (vocals).
Midwestern feels like the album that I’ve wanted to make my entire career – I’ve always strived to write songs that put the story first and – and I feel like I did that with these songs. I also wanted to make a record that felt like the listener was sitting right there with us in the studio, and I think we did that too. When we were recording Midwestern, we all sat in a circle, facing one another, and played as though we were sitting around a kitchen table – so when you listen to these songs you won’t hear any flashy production or reverb soaked vocals – because that’s not how it sounded in the studio. Its not that I don’t like those things – because you can make fancy sounding records that are great – but these songs felt like that needed to be laid out bare – raw – like a story being passed down from your grandfather, to you – and from you to your kids. I wanted these songs to sound like they’ll live forever.” – Zachary Lucky
With his husky calming vocals, and the spacious simple musical arrangements, Zachary Lucky will soothe your soul on every song on this album. And especially “Rock and Roll Dad,” the song in the video, is a poignant and true tapestry of the trade offs we make in life. Listen for yourself.
Order the album here: https://zacharylucky.bandcamp.com The video is here, and the entire album is just beneath it: