Country Trio Midland is Still in a Lonestar State of Mind

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Country Trio Midland is Still in a Lonestar State of Mind


People, Feature,

Country Trio Midland is Still in a Lonestar State of Mind

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People, Feature,

Country Trio Midland is Still in a Lonestar State of Mind

Country Trio Midland is Still in a Lonestar State of Mind

People, Feature,

Country Trio Midland is Still in a Lonestar State of Mind

Published By: By Alison Hudak   •   October 24, 2024

Country Trio Midland is Still in a Lonestar State of Mind

Published By:
By Alison Hudak By Alison Hudak
October 24, 2024

People, Feature,


With a new album and a new era dawning, country trio Midland is still in a Lonestar state of mind.

It all comes back to Texas for Midland, the Grammy-nominated, ACM Award-winning country music trio. While members Mark Wystrach, Jess Carson and Cameron Duddy had been in each other’s orbits for years (often making music together with various bands), a week of playing together as a threesome while vacationing in Jackson Hole for Duddy’s 2013 wedding led to another union.

Photographed by
HARPER SMITH
Photographed by HARPER SMITH

At the suggestion of Duddy, the trio met up at the famous Sonic Ranch recording studio in El Paso to record together. As legend has it, that’s when the three musicians formed Midland, named for the Dwight Yoakam song “Fair to Midland.” Shortly after, Wystrach and Duddy both moved from California to Texas, where Carson was already living.

“Texas is where we started this band. We’re in Hill Country. There is magic out here,” says Duddy. “There’s no Midland without Austin. And there’s no success without Texas.”

Photographed by
HARPER SMITH
Photographed by HARPER SMITH

Success has come in spades for these hometown boys. Their debut five-times platinum hit “Drinkin’ Problem” put them on the map, earning the band nominations at the CMT Awards, the CMA Awards, the Grammys and the ACM Awards, where they took home the prize for 2018 New Vocal Group and helped lift their certified Gold debut studio album, On The Rocks, to the top of the Billboard Top Country Albums.

Their next album, 2019’s Let It Roll, debuted at No. 1, and in 2021, Midland released The Last Resort, a shorter format album. It would set the stage for their latest release, September’s Barely Blue.

With just eight songs and a run time of under thirty minutes, Barely Blue is a mix of songs old and new from the band, who says the quality-over-quantity approach was purposeful.

“You want to make something [listeners] can really focus on,” says Carson.

The album itself is a stunning exercise in restraint from a band known for their rowdy stage antics, bravado-heavy lyrics and, well, a drinking problem. That evolution came from the band members, who have admittedly grown up in the decade since their debut.

“There has been a shift for more serious material. I think that’s just natural as you get older,” says Carson. “Songs like [2019’s] ‘Mr. Lonely’ are great songs. We’re always going to play them; they’ll always be crowd favorites. And maybe we’ll go back to stuff like that, but for this album, it felt natural to have this serious collection of songs.”


Photographed by
HARPER SMITH
Photographed by HARPER SMITH

Duddy says that despite reflecting a more mature Midland, some of the album tracks came from the band’s canon, which speaks to the level of sophisticated songwriting the trio has been producing for years. He points to a longtime vault track, “Halfway to Heaven,” which makes its debut on the new album.

“The song was a ballad, and [producer] Dave Cobb started us down this path of finding this different, real uptempo version ala late ’60s Comeback Special Elvis.”

Midland made the trek to Cobb’s Savannah studio to record the album. Not only did the change of scenery offer new inspiration, but Cobb, a 13-time Grammy-winning producer who has worked with Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile and more, played a key role in the album’s more mellow sound.

“Dave Cobb had been a producer we wanted to work with since we first heard Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music,” Wystrach has said while promoting the album. “Dave’s eclectic musical background and the way he approaches recording as an experience and not a task made him the perfect match for us. On Barely Blue, Dave helped us find the sound we’ve been searching for for a long time.”


Photographed by
HARPER SMITH
Photographed by HARPER SMITH

“His approach is very vintage, the way people made albums back in the day, which appeals to us because that’s so much of our influence,” says Carson.

Now, as Midland tours with their new album and their new sound, it’s time for fans to get fired up. From October through December, the trio will return to their home state with four shows in Texas. “This is our stomping grounds, and we’re very proud to be from here as a band. When we’re in Texas, it feels like a very safe place to play live music and let your hair down,” says Duddy. “I’m never leaving. It’s like they say, ‘I wasn’t born here, but I got here as fast as I could.’”

Midland’s final show of the year, fittingly, will take place at Moody Theater—the perfect place to close out a career-defining year for the band. Wystrach notes the synergy.

“It’s going to be the ultimate cap off to a crazy year for us when we get the chance to play these new songs at one of the most iconic theaters in country music, ACL Live, back in Austin, where the journey began for Midland.”

“THERE’S NO MIDLAND WITHOUT AUSTIN.”


Photographed by
HARPER SMITH
Photographed by HARPER SMITH

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