Kevin Gordon Announces New LP ‘The In Between,’ Shares “Simple Things”

Kevin Gordon

Nashville singer-songwriter and poet Kevin Gordon has announced his new album The In Between (Crowville Media) will be released on September 13. Produced by Joe V. McMahan (Justin Townes Earle), it’s his first full-length album since 2018’s Tilt & Shine,

With the announcement, Gordon has shared the lead single and album opener “Simple Things,” which was mixed by five-time GRAMMY Award winner Tchad Blake (Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Los Lobos, Al Green, The Pretenders, Tom Waits). Written during the pandemic about, as he puts it, “contact, that exchange of energy between me and an audience,” the track took on new meaning when in the middle of recording the album, Gordon was diagnosed with throat cancer.

The call came between the first two recording sessions. “I knew something was up when the first scan results came back; I drove straight to New Orleans and stayed pretty much out of my mind for three days. I was terrified, and thought I would lose it completely if I sat in my house staring at the wall any longer,” recalls Gordon. “They were using words like malignant, which scared the hell out of me. Those second tracking sessions were more emotional for me, personally,” he continues. With guitars, drums, and bass completed for most tracks but vocals for only one or two, the sessions had to go on indefinite pause while Gordon underwent radiation and chemotherapy.

It took the better part of a year for doctors to certify Kevin as cancer-free. When his singing voice started to return to him, making music felt urgent and vital in a new way. “Unfortunately, nothing changed with my voice!,” he jokes. “But it was all that much sweeter on the other end. The first gig back, a short solo set broadcast live on radio, it was pretty scary, the starkness of it. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go,” he says. His singing on The In Between crackles and sparks with life.

Tour Dates:
June 28: Nashville – Eastside Bowl
July 19: Berwyn, IL – Fitzgerald’s
July 21: Madison, WI – Kiki’s House of Righteous Music
September 26: Charlotte, NC – River Jam 2024

The In Between tracklist (all songs written by Kevin Gordon unless noted):