The Black Lillies Announce New Album “Stranger To Me” with New Lineup
Knoxville, TN progressive country/bluegrass band The Black Lillies are getting ready to release their long-awaited fifth album called Stranger To Me through Thirty Tigers on September 28th. It’s the band’s first album since the departure of high-profile member Trisha Gene Brady, and the first album the band will release as a collaborative songwriting effort.
Consisting of long-time founding member and frontman Cruz Contreras, along with well-respected singer and songwriter in his own right Sam Quinn on bass, as well as guitar player Dustin Schaefer and drummer Bowman Townsend, the Black Lillies have garnered a strong fan base from appealing to folks across roots platforms, from country, bluegrass, Americana, and everything in between. Their partnership with Texas music booking agency Red 11 has also made them honorary members of the Texas/Red Dirt scene.
“Going from a six-piece to a four-piece, it’s given these guys space to shine and grow and evolve, and the chemistry has gotten better,” says Cruz Contreras. “These guys have become not just sidemen or guns for hire; they’re invested. Their opinions count, and their creativity is as much a part of this record as mine. There are songs that I wrote; that Sam wrote; that we wrote in any combination and all of us together.”
The songs from Stranger To Me were taken from a selection of over 30 songs the band composed and performed as part of a web series called “The Sprinter Sessions” they partook in while on tour in 2017. Some of the songs had been written the day of the sessions, and the morning after gigs.
“You’re putting songs out there that weren’t finished, weren’t perfectly arranged, and we might barely have been able to perform them,” Contreras says. “We might be tired or hungover, playing them at a truck stop or wherever. It wasn’t glamorous — but it held us accountable to that a rate of productivity that was really important, and it kept our fans up to speed with the evolution of the group — even if a lot of them did offer to send us clothes or food!”
The album also sees Sam Quinn—a former member of the Everybodyfields and the 2006 Merlefest Chris Austin Songwriting Award winner—take a more active role, leading three of the new songs.
“When Sam joined the band, we were getting a rock star. This guy’s been around the block, done it all and succeeded,” says Contreras. “He’s written great songs, played big stages and had the band that will go down in music history as one of the seminal ones in the genre. With Dustin, he had moved to Nashville to pursue a solo career, but when he joined up, we all got along and played well together. Bowman brought that positive attitude, that work ethic, and for me, he’s been ‘the guy.’ With all of these guys, we kind of hit the ground running.”
Ahead of the release of Stranger To Me, the band has made available the new song “Midnight Stranger” (listen below). Stranger To Me is also available for pre-order.
Stranger To Me Track List:
1. Ten Years
2. Midnight Stranger
3. Weightning
4. Out of the Blue
5. Don’t Be Afraid
6. No Other Way
7. Joy and Misery
8. Earthquake
9. Ice Museum
10. River Rolls
11. Third Place
12. Snakes and Telephones
13. Someday, Sometime
August 12, 2018 @ 10:25 am
At one point Saturday, it seemed like a new text message was coming in just about every minute detailing some great play from Tua Tagovailoa.
Tua with a long pass right on the money
Another good ball from Tua
And another
Touchdown pass to No. 44
And so on.
Though Alabama doesn’t allow the media to watch scrimmages, it’s clear from information we’ve gathered that momentum continues to build for Tagovailoa in this competition with Jalen Hurts for the Crimson Tide starting quarterback job.
While Hurts has had some good moments during fall camp and while the competition is ongoing, it’s fair to say that Tagovailoa had the much better day of the two on Saturday during the first of Alabama’s two fall scrimmages.
“Disclaimer: this is the first scrimmage of camp, and the only practice I’ve seen,” former Alabama defensive back Will Lowery tweeted after the scrimmage. “But from what I watched today, I’ll be shocked if Tua isn’t day 1 starter, and it isn’t close.”
Word is that Tagovailoa threw at least three touchdowns with no interceptions while Hurts had three interceptions and didn’t account for any touchdowns.
The first Tagovailoa touchdown was more so an excellent play from sophomore wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, who put a great move on one of Alabama’s defensive backs and then outran other defensive players to the end zone after catching a short pass.
There were at least two more Tagovailoa touchdowns later on, though — one of about 20 yards to redshirt freshman receiver Tyrell Shavers and the one to No. 44, sophomore tight end Kedrick James.
While there were at least a couple times that Tagovailoa took risks and threw balls into dangerous areas, it seems like it was a great day overall for him. Enough so that Lowery posted the tweet he did following the scrimmage.
“We’re going to evaluate the quarterback situation,” Tide coach Nick Saban said. “We’re going to keep looking at the guys. What somebody did today or didn’t do today is not going to win or lose him the job, aight. It’s going to be a cumulative effect and the consistency that they practice with and play with the whole time. And that’s in fairness to both players, who are really good competitors and really working hard and really doing a good job. So we don’t have much more to say than that.”
August 13, 2018 @ 6:38 am
lol War Eagle
August 12, 2018 @ 2:07 pm
For a second I though they had incorporated some weird electronic sounds into their new single, until I realized it was just my wife resetting the weather alert radio in the other room.
Great song! 🙂
August 13, 2018 @ 4:19 am
Good stuff there. I’ve seen The Black Lillie’s a few times and think they are very good and very much a sleeper band. Nothing against Trisha, I personally think Her departure made the band better. I love female fronted bands but these two sharing never gelled for me.
August 16, 2018 @ 6:24 am
Disagree. Trisha added a dimension. Listening to the same singer all the time gets tedious.
Don’t get me wrong, big fan here. Here’s a shot to continued success.
August 16, 2018 @ 10:56 am
All cool. Just my taste; respect everyones opinion. Either way they are a great band; I just don’t think her departure is going to hurt their ability to grow fan base.
August 13, 2018 @ 8:24 am
Good song 😀
August 13, 2018 @ 5:43 pm
Check out a song by Paul Luc called “Stranger to Me”. Great songwriting.
August 14, 2018 @ 2:36 pm
This is gonna be a good one! I love these guys!
October 3, 2018 @ 11:33 am
Listening to the album now and I’m not really feeling it. Some of these songs seem like they could go straight to country radio. If that’s what they want, I hope it works. But the quirkiness I enjoyed so much is gone.