Sundowner was released 3 years ago today on October 16th. (Technically it’s October 17th here in Hanoi, but as I type this I believe it is still the 16th in America, where Sundowner was born).
If albums were children then Sundowner would be the kid who refused to cause any trouble. Always confident, easy and on time. Quietly doing her thing without making a fuss.
I had wanted to do a stripped down album for a while, and I knew I wanted to do it with friend and producer Brad Cook. Brad and I would run into one another out on the road and talk about wanting to do something in the vein of Springsteens Nebraska or Another Side Of Bob Dylan someday.
At the time, the creation of my album Oh My God was consuming most of my creative brain but Sundowner quietly snuck in through some window in my creative psyche. After buying an old cassette 4-track from a friend I found myself writing a whole new set of songs inspired by the new machine and my move back to the midwest. The songs came quickly and effortlessly in between OMG recording sessions and tours in support of City Music.
After I recorded the 4-track version I asked Brad if he’d want to take these songs into the studio and he asked which studio I wanted to book. Since all the other albums before it were made on both coasts I wanted to be sure to do this one somewhere in the middle, especially given the subject matter.
After a little research, I told Brad I wanted to record at Sonic Ranch, outside El Paso, where lots of friends and heroes had recorded before me. Neither of us had ever been there before, and we went out and made it in five days. There we met our friend and wonderful engineer Jerry.
Like the writing, the recording was also effortless, especially since I had already recorded the album into my four track. Essentially we did everything the same, with Brad on bass. We also brought in James Krivchenia who lived nearby who added some extra drums and percussion. James knew the property well as he had just made an album at Sonic Ranch a few months before with his band Big Thief called Two Hands.
We finished the album before Oh My God was released and suddenly I had two finished album in my back pocket, though I knew OMG was everyones priority. From there it always felt perplexing, or like an impossible puzzle to figure out when to best release Sundowner, until the pandemic hit.
When everything shut down in 2020, so did half of all my touring plans for OMG. Suddenly, it became clear that - if we couldn’t tour, at least there was this other already-completed album ready to be heard. It felt serendipitous that an album I had constructed in my own isolation, would be heard people in theirs.
So, three years ago on October 2023 we released Sundowner. To celebrate, we filmed a performance in sync with the sun going down as a ticketed event that people could watch online. Afterwards I joined a chat with some of the fans and that was essentially that. The very next day I drove to the Peabody in Memphis to begin working on my next album.
I’m so grateful for Sundowner. It was a beacon of light in a very dark year. Some of my favorite moments of 2020 were shooting the album cover on a farm in Missouri at sunset. I remember at the time thinking “I hope this is good, or else i’m fucked” after paying a crew to risk covid and build a set out in the middle of the tall grass. Luckily it ended up being my favorite album cover.
I’m also incredibly grateful for the experience around the music videos. Some of my favorite videos i’ve ever made and out in the great wide open Kansas plains.
In terms of demos, I released the 4-track version of the album, called A Night At The Little Los Angeles, which acted as the official demos / unofficial album.
But I have hundreds of phone recordings of me working out the songs and i’ve included two below. One is a demo for my song Provisions and the other is me working out the back half of Campfire. I’m whispering, which means Katie was probably asleep nearby. Both recorded summer 2018.
Also a strange outtake 4-track version of Valley.
Anyways, happy 3rd Birthday to this album that never gave me any grief and only ever felt like a blessing.
xoxo km