Muscadine Bloodline is building one of the greatest catalogs country music has ever seen. And their brand new sixth studio album Longleaf Lo-Fi is another spectacular addition.
If you’ve been following Muscadine Bloodline for a while now, then you are likely familiar with their story. The duo of Gary Stanton and Charlie Muncaster have been at this music thing for nearly a decade, but their priorities and outlook on the country music industry have changed substantially over that time.
When they first started out, Muscadine Bloodline was playing the Nashville game, in search of mainstream country music fame. And with heavily streamed singles like “Porch Swing Angel,” they almost got it, too. But after a few years of trying to fit in the Nashville scene, and coming up just short of some of their goals, they decided to take a different route with their music.
Their 2020 debut album Burn It at Both Ends was a step in that direction, but it was their sophomore album Dispatch to 16th Ave. in 2022 that gave a middle finger to the Nashville music machine and marked a distinctive shift in their attitude and artistry. Fast forward just three years later, and Muscadine Bloodline is one of the biggest and most well-respected independent acts in all of country music, and their prolific output of high-quality original music has played a large part in that.
Their three most recent albums all revolved around the world they grew up in in South Alabama, recounting their experiences, observations, and the legends they’ve heard along the way. Putting geographically centric short stories to song in a masterful manner that resembles that of Evan Felker and the Turnpike Troubadours, Stanton and Muncaster have introduced a plethora of larger-than-life characters and transported the listener time and time again to a nostalgia-filled version of the Yellowhammer State.
Picking up right where they left off, their most recent project Longleaf Lo-Fi follows a similar concept, but finds the duo crossing the state line to Mississippi, another familiar locale from which both of their wives hail. Accordingly, the 11-song tracklist flows seamlessly through heartfelt love songs to their wives and captivating tales of new characters they’ve introduced to their universe.
Although the band had announced on several occasions they would be releasing a second record before the end of the year, Longleaf Lo-Fi has arrived with little fanfare, having only released the lead single “My Meridian” back in September and “Peter from Picayune,” a tragic ode to a soldier’s sacrifice that was released on Veteran’s Day. But in many ways, that adds to the magnitude and cohesive nature of this project, with the majority of the songs hitting streaming platforms at once.
Beyond the poignant cover of The Story So Far’s “Clairvoyant,” each track was at least co-written by either Stanton or Muncaster, and they worked alongside a who’s who of up-and-coming songwriters including Lance Roark, Sam Canty (of Treaty Oak Revival), and Tennille Townes, who featured on “Maybe I’ll Say It” in the process.
Hunkering down in a cabin amidst Mississippi’s longleaf pines with their co-producer Ryan Youman’s to record the album – and getting in some grilling and hunting in the process – the duo made it a point to bring this record to life from the state it revolves around. And it marks a bit of a sonic shift from their typical honky tonk and country rock and roll leaning sound.
Intentionally stripped-back and predominantly acoustic, hence the record title, Longleaf Lo-Fi is an easy listen with intricate attention to detail, and it serves as even further proof as to why Muscadine Bloodline is one of the greatest outfits in country music.
I could go on and on here, but the proof is on the music, so go ahead and give Longleaf Lo-Fi a listen for yourself. These guys just don’t miss.
Here’s a few early favorites:
“My Meridian”
“Grace”
“Peter From Picayune”
“59”
