Man, the things artists will go through to get an album just right…
Muscadine Bloodline recently dropped what’s sure to be one of the best albums of the year, Dispatch to 16th Ave. I’ve had it on repeat since it came out, and there’s not a bad song on the whole album. It’s so damn good, from the songwriting to the music to the production…
But one part of the album that people might not think too much about is the cover art.
And Gary Stanton, one half of Muscadine Bloodline, took to Instagram to give us the wild story behind that photo on the album’s cover.
If you’re not familiar, here’s the album cover we’re talking about:
The photo features Gary, along with the other half of Muscadine Bloodline, Charlie Muncaster, standing in front of what appears to be an abandoned building.
The building, which Gary explains he found while he was sick with COVID last year, is “somewhere in the middle of nowhere Tennessee.” And after the discovery, the boys decided to take some pictures in front of the building to use for their album art.
So about a month later, Gary, Charlie, and their photographer Wales Toney went back to take the photos. – and I’ll let Gary take it from here:
“We’re out there for like 30 minutes, right, and it’s right off this main road, and we’re like standing on the sidewalk so we didn’t think anything of it.
Well this guy pulls up in his dually truck. He’s got a Mason’s lodge hat on, overalls, work shirt. And he starts dog-cussing us, and thinks we’re these guys who broke into this shop that’s behind us a week ago.
Anyways he draws a gun on us and he was like ‘If y’all don’t get out of here I’m gonna pop a cap in someone’s ass.’
Never heard an 80-year old man say ‘pop a cap in someone’s ass.’
But we figured since we went through that this has to be the album art, because this was worth getting a gun drawn on us. So that’s the album art.”
Now, I’ll admit I don’t hang out with too many burglars these days, but if you look at the album cover, Gary’s wearing a tucked in button-up shirt and Charlie’s wearing a nice jacket. Is that how criminals are dressing these days when they go to break into abandoned buildings?
And another dead giveaway that they’re probably not there for any criminal activity: They had a damn photographer with them. Did this guy think they were documenting their crimes for social media or something?
Luckily it (apparently) didn’t turn into anything more serious than it already was, and the end result of the confrontation was the photo they used for the album cover and one hell of a story to tell.
Whatever it takes to get the album perfect, right?
