In August 2024—only a month previous to the discharge of his new album, Excessive—Keith City took the stage in Athens, Alabama, and performed a two-hour set for greater than 5,000 folks, working via hits from all through his profession and overlaying Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Candy Residence Alabama.” It was, for probably the most half, a typical present: energetic but targeted, spontaneous however polished, by no means beholden to manufacturing design. What made it completely different was the setting. He was taking part in the car parking zone of Buc-ee’s #57, simply off I-65. Simply past the crowds of Urbanites packed on the makeshift stage had been vacationers going about their enterprise, pumping gasoline into their SUVs and RVs and carrying armloads of brisket sandwiches to their automobiles.
It was an uncommon spot for a live performance, even a difficult one, however that’s precisely what appealed to City. The Australia-raised/Nashville-based artist has closed out the yr with a collection of unconventional exhibits—together with moments-notice pop-up live shows and even an unannounced gig on the airport—all of which culminated within the announcement of a brand new world tour. It’s not a lot about attracting followers a lot because it’s about bringing his music to new house and getting again to the joy of his early membership days, when he was striving to search out an viewers and striving even more durable to maintain them.
Extra from Spin:
Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr Group For Beatles Hits In London
5 Albums I Can’t Reside With out: Ben Burnley of Breaking Benjamin
Bruce Springsteen Teases 2025 Archival Releases
City is trying to take that vitality and that intimacy again on the highway with him in 2025. “I wished to search out uncommon locations to play and never simply the same old modes of taking part in. It was actually about getting the present proper again all the way down to its purest kind: low-cost, principally no lights, little or no manufacturing, plug in, let’s go. Let’s see if we are able to maintain this factor collectively. That’s the place I come from, so it’s not prefer it’s one thing I’ve to be taught. However I do need to ensure I nonetheless have these muscle tissues working.”
In a city that does issues by the guide, City is intent on making an attempt new issues, tinkering round with method. Generally it’s an enormous success. Different instances… not a lot. He’ll be the primary to confess that shaking issues up will not be all the time the most effective thought. He examined out a brand new recording course of and even completed an album, titled 615, earlier than realizing that it wasn’t excellent. He shelved most of it, stored just a few songs, and created Excessive, his greatest effort in years. It’s an album entrenched however by no means fairly cemented in modern nation, open to unusual whims and wild concepts: eccentric and rambunctious, excellent to take out on a world tour.
Over greater than 30 years in Nashville, City has proved to be something however a twang purist. He might write nation songs, however he performs and sings them with rockstar bravado, with a steely voice that slips simply right into a Tennessee-by-way-of-the-southern-hemisphere drawl and ripping guitar solos that sound extra like Brian Could or Steve Gaines than Don Wealthy and even Brad Paisley. Way back he might have settled right into a soft position as Nashville’s elder statesman or a legacy artist taking part in the hits, however even in his late 50s, City stays stressed sufficient to nonetheless make information in a approach he describes as “raveled.”
As he prepares for his world tour, City spoke with Spin about busking on the airport, studying from failure, taking part in his guitar extra, and indulging some really harebrained schemes within the studio.
You’re asserting a brand new world tour. Are there issues that you simply look ahead to or issues that you simply dread once you’re on the highway?
Keith City: It sounds apparent, however I’m all the time trying ahead to placing new excursions collectively. I really like working up new songs, new set items, new productions, simply every little thing. After which issues unfold on the highway and songs evolve. The present evolves and the entire expertise grows in actually attention-grabbing methods. Taking part in them evening after evening, you discover little detours that you simply begin taking. Or new rivers begin to movement with new estuaries. You discover. The concepts that work keep within the set and grow to be a part of the music. I don’t like repetition. I don’t need to be taking part in songs and making an attempt to copy a selected model of them. Your coronary heart must be in it.
You’ve carried out some attention-grabbing exhibits—busking on the airport, taking part in in a Buc-ee’s car parking zone. What did you be taught from these experiences that you simply’ll tackle the highway?
The Nashville airport present was unannounced. We’d gone within the week earlier than and scouted out a few spots that appeared like they’d be good—fast to get in and get out. And there was this tiny little space that had a small stage, kinda wedged in between a few bars. It was very company trying, however had these little audio system suspended from the roof. We simply got here in with out a highway crew and performed as a 3 piece, simply bass, drums, guitar, no manufacturing, and a shitty PA. It’s simply your songs and your musicianship. I liked it a lot, particularly the quirky nature of the transient viewers—folks strolling across the terminal and going, Is {that a} cowl band? What’s occurring? After which wanting to look at however they’ll’t as a result of they’ve obtained to search out their gate or catch their flight. We performed about 45 minutes, again to again to again songs, after which obtained out of there.
It’s not solely altering the way you’re taking part in, however who you’re taking part in to and the way they hear you.
It was like going again to the golf equipment and taking part in in a canopy band and no person is aware of who you’re. No person cares who you’re. You’ve obtained to attempt to do one thing to get their consideration. There’s one thing nice about that problem. I imply, there have been some individuals who knew us and knew the songs, however there are various extra folks simply strolling by, not even trying up. And also you’re like, What can I do proper now to get that individual’s consideration?
Are you excited about the stay expertise once you’re engaged on an album?
I’m by no means fairly positive how acutely aware I’m about it. Generally I do give it some thought after I’m writing. How would this sound stay? I’ve definitely written songs primarily based on the wants I’ve within the setlist. Oh, I want I had extra of this sort of music, and I’ll write songs particularly to that. However I did an album in ’22 known as 615, which was 13 songs, and I simply bailed on the entire thing. I took 4 songs off it after which constructed a complete new document round it. A few of that was born of the truth that it didn’t really feel prefer it was going to be an excellent album to tour the way in which I need to tour. It had loads of ballads, had loads of middle-of-the-road stuff. It’s not an actual spirited document.
It will need to have been arduous to let go of that document.
Probably not. I used to be touring in ’22, and if I used to be off the highway for just a few days, I’d go into the studio and document a music. I had a bunch that I actually love, however as a result of we had been recording one music at a time, I had loads of songs that sounded actually good on their very own. That felt nice, and my workforce was like, alright, deliver the document in and play it for us. However after I tried to sequence these songs, I used to be like, oh shit. A number of them simply sound the identical. Right here’s a very good ballad. Nice. However so’s the following one. And the following one. I used to be actually struggling to sequence it in a approach that I wish to sequence albums, with a lot of ups and downs. I began to appreciate that I didn’t have a document. Perhaps I’ve obtained a 3rd of a document. However I went and performed it for the workforce, simply in case I used to be flawed. I’ve been flawed earlier than.
What was their response?
Properly, I hit play, and about 4 songs in, I hit cease. I advised them, I’m sorry however this isn’t my album. They mentioned it was missing some uptempo songs, however I knew it was greater than that. So I stored 4 songs—“Messed Up As Me,” “Daytona,” “Coronary heart Like a Hometown,” and “Break the Chain”—and constructed a brand new document round them. In hindsight, I’ve by no means carried out that earlier than—touring and recording on the similar time. After I’m not touring, I’m normally recording, however that is the primary time I’ve tried to do each on the similar time, and it didn’t work out.
What did you be taught from that have?
I assume I shouldn’t change the way in which I make information as a result of I’ve all the time carried out it a method, which is free and spontaneous. And I discovered that I shouldn’t change that up. Normally, if I’m not feeling a music, I’ll simply scrap it. Even when I’ve booked gamers for that day, I simply gained’t do the music. I’ll do regardless of the hell I really feel like doing that day. With 615, I felt like I needs to be a bit extra disciplined. That is the music I mentioned I used to be going to do, so that is the music I’m going to do. However it ended up being a really linear document, and it lacked spirit and dimension and themes. However after I made this document, I believed there was loads of vitality taking place round all of the songs, even the ballads, and that excites me. I discovered my lesson, and I’ll all the time be a bit raveled with the way in which I make information sooner or later.
Does that change the way in which you’re employed as a guitar participant and the way you discover your approach into the songs with that instrument?
I used to be taking part in some tracks for Dann Huff someday. I’ve carried out so many information with him, and we had been doing a document known as Graffiti U in 2017. I used to be at his home and he requested me, how come you don’t play guitar in your information as a lot as you used to? I mentioned, Dann, There’s a shitload of guitar on the document. What are you speaking about? And he says, yeah, nevertheless it’s textural. It’s atmospheric. The place are the solos? However I don’t need to simply put a solo on a music simply to have a solo. Once we document a observe, I’ll sit there within the studio with a guitar in hand, hit playback, after which simply reply to the observe. If the observe doesn’t pull one thing out of me, then I assume it doesn’t want guitar. Dann says, why does the observe make you not need to play guitar? I used to be like, ah. Fuck you, Dann. It was a easy query, and I thought of it for years. Why do I create songs that don’t encourage me to play guitar? I began to really feel like I wanted to get again to extra guitar taking part in, and that positively made its approach onto this document.
How did that work this time round?
Many of the songs I write virtually all the time begin with the music after which the lyrics come completely final. So the music is informing the story, and so they’ve obtained to go collectively excellent. So if there’s going to be a guitar solo, it’s obtained to be impressed by the emotion of the music, which impressed the lyrics. So theoretically, it ought to all go collectively as a result of it’s all impressed by the identical factor. It’s like, I do know the music is making an attempt to say one thing in “Break the Chain.” It begins with a plaintive acoustic opening riff—melancholy however at peace with the melancholy. The lyrics got here fairly rapidly for that music. The music was telling me to write down these phrases. That’s the gorgeous conundrum of alchemy, the place I’ve freed myself of every little thing so one thing can movement. If it occurs, it’s superb. If it doesn’t, that’s effective too. However I like when it’s allowed to be an natural portal.
Are you able to inform me about “Go Residence W U,” the one with Lainey Wilson? Was {that a} voice you had in thoughts once you had been writing that music?
We wrote that music again in 2020, Breland, Sam Sumser, Sean Small, and me. We had a writing camp for about two weeks and wrote a ton of songs. That wasn’t written as a duet. It was written as a result of it was COVID and nothing was open and we had been like, “Let’s simply write a music imagining that issues are open and what that might be like.” The songs sat round for nearly 4 years. I’d heard Lainey sing on some early recordings she’d carried out with Jay Joyce, and the second I hear her voice, I used to be like, who is that this? Is that her actual voice? And naturally, once you meet her, she talks precisely like that. She’s like Reba. Utterly genuine. 100% legit. You don’t hear the actual deal fairly often. I knew I wished to search out one thing to sing along with her. Then she simply blew up. I figured all people could be leaping to sing along with her, however I despatched the music to her and she or he put her vocal on it.
You’ve additionally obtained that duet with Jelly Roll, “Don’t Need To.” There appears to be much more duets and collaborations occurring in Nashville.
Clearly, nation has an excellent historical past of collabs and duets and even supergroups, nevertheless it does appear to have proliferated fairly a bit. Look, on the finish of the day, I feel we’re all conscious when odd artists are thrown collectively to jack up their streaming numbers. However I find it irresistible when you possibly can inform it’s an actual factor. When Jelly Roll requested me about that music, he requested me as a result of we share our personal type of struggles previously. I actually respect that he knew I might know the story.
One of many songs on this document that sounds prefer it was made for the stay expertise is “Laughing All of the Solution to the Drank.”
At any time when we do soundcheck, my drummer, Terrence F. Clark, will simply begin taking part in one thing on drums, and I’ll begin jamming with him. He’s an excellent rhythmic drummer, which could be very inspiring once you need to jam. I used to be going to write down with Michael Elizondo, who’s an ungodly bass participant, so I requested him if I might deliver Terrence in with me and the three of us simply jam. It was Terrence on drums, me on electrical guitar, and Michael on bass. No person mentioned something. We simply let Terrence play regardless of the hell he wished to play, after which we fell in behind him. We did that for a complete day and obtained possibly 11 tracks. One in every of them was this music. The melody was type of there, however the lyrics had been simply gibberish. I used to be simply singing gibberish. However the observe had superb vitality. So I known as up Ben Burgess to see if he might make something of it. He listened to it and mentioned, how about “Laughing All of the Solution to the Financial institution”? And as quickly as he mentioned it, in my silly bumper-sticker approach, I used to be like, effectively, we’ve got to name it “Laughing All of the Solution to the Drank”! We knew instantly what the story was going to be and had been off and working. The entire thing was constructed on that free-form jam.
And there’s that sequence the place you go from hip-hop scratching to nation banjo after which a rock solo.
Properly, we had completed the music and I used to be within the bathe someday and was like, oh, I’ve obtained this concept for a bridge. I don’t even suppose the music wanted a bridge. However what if a cowboy and cowgirl shuffle out onto the dance flooring and [the] DJ says we’re gonna throw it again and begin taking part in some ’90s throwback nation. And other people get upset and begin yelling, what the hell is that this crap? The place are the banjos? And so the banjos kick in. They usually’re like, the place are the fiddles? And the fiddles kick in. And all of it goes collectively. It was this bizarre mini-cinematic thought. It took some determining to make it occur, however we obtained it.
The final piece of the puzzle was the pickup truck firing up firstly of the music. Mike Elizondo discovered an excellent pattern, however then I believed, we’ve obtained to get a neighbor screaming on the man for revving his truck so loud. My day-to-day supervisor, Elisabeth Ashley, had come by the studio, so I requested her, are you able to get on the mic and scream, “Hey! It’s 6:00 within the morning!” And God bless her she did.
So that you’re simply corralling passersby into your bizarre schemes.
Ha, yeah. However that’s the spirit that was far more on my earlier information. Simply do it. Don’t give it some thought. Definitely don’t overthink it. You possibly can all the time exchange it later. However there’s that magical spontaneous factor once you’re placing an thought down quick. These moments are nearly making an attempt to seize that spirit.
To see our working record of the highest 100 biggest rock stars of all time, click on right here.
