Acclaimed singer-songwriter John Vincent III has announced the release of his long-awaited sophomore album, 'Songs For The Canyon', arriving via Concord Records on Friday, November 17th. To celebrate, he's shared the deeply moving first single 'Highway Woman'.
Executive produced by John with Tom Elmhirst (Adele, David Bowie) and featuring production from Tony Berg (boygenius, Phoebe Bridgers, Taylor Swift), Ryan Hadlock (The Lumineers, Brandi Carlile), and Jonathan Gilbert (Mt. Joy, Pete Yorn), 'Songs For The Canyon' is heralded by today’s premiere of the deeply moving first single, 'Highway Woman', available now at all and streaming services.
Speaking about the new single, John added, “‘Highway Woman’ is one of those songs that came out of a stream of consciousness.” John continued, “Both the piano and the lyrics were written in about an hour, and the first demo was cut immediately after. This is a pretty rare way of getting there for me as most of my songs are worked out for days or weeks before they’re ready to demo. It is still a love song, a travel song, a song about the one you love to travel with…but with the stain of life’s hardships smeared on it. Sometimes life can really beat you down, and it's important to recognize the person or people you get through those times with as the gifts that they are."
Currently boasting over 1.8 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, John Vincent III earned immediate attention and critical applause with a series of self-released singles and EPs, followed by his breakthrough 2019 debut album, 'Songs From The Valley'. The Houston, TX-raised, Los Angeles, CA-based singer-songwriter celebrated the LP’s success with nearly non-stop touring, returning home just as the pandemic struck the world over. Rather than sit still, John and his partner, photographer/filmmaker Kaitlyn Renee, packed up their Ford Transit van and hit the road, spending eight months together (along with a new puppy) exploring America in their home-on-wheels. Though John tried his best to tune out the world around him, he found himself writing songs for the sheer joy of writing songs, not thinking about structure or intricate chords, but simply relating the extraordinary experience he was living.
Jon returned to Los Angeles and pushed his songcraft even further, tightening and adapting and refining until his songs revealed their true identities. The resulting 'Songs For The Canyon' proves a massive leap forward for John, his evocative lyricism and wistful melodic gifts now even more detailed and emotionally rich than ever before. Recorded with top producers in studios on both coasts (including New York City’s famed Electric Lady Studios), songs such as “Bluebird Singing,” the incandescently orchestrated “Dandelion,” and the foot-stomping, solo acoustic “That’s Just The Way It Is, Babe” see the talented troubadour driving his heartfelt, stripped-down sound towards new sonic vistas inspired by the classic folk-rock of Laurel Canyon. Marked by its open-armed storytelling and timeless musical approach, 'Songs For The Canyon' serves as an undeniable milestone for John Vincent III, standing tall as both a warts-and-all chronicle of his recent adventures and confident signpost towards future musical journeys.
John continued, speaking about the album as a whole, “This album feels like waking up at 2 am to someone knocking on the van window and telling us we can’t be parked there to sleep, and our dog chewing up our clothes,” John Vincent III says. “There were times I felt like I was on top of the world, and others when I was crying about how the album just wasn’t coming together."
“To the people who have supported my career, even during my time away, I want them to know that this album was therapeutic. It was just me trying to figure out what the hell I was going through. Maybe I still don’t even have the answers, but I tried my best to create something that was as honest as possible and hopefully worth the wait.”
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