Cutting undeniable grooves in the road of Americana music with their new release Cheers to Solitude, Sheridan WY quartet The Two Tracks bend genres into a sound both unique and immediately familiar, laced with a hint of that ‘high lonesome’ tradition. Their Western American sound caught the ear of respected musician and producer Will Kimbrough who produced their previous effort Postcard Town and returns for Cheers to Solitude.
A fistful of years ago, Julie Szewc (pronounced “Chefs”) and Dave Huebner met in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming with one central thing in common; a love of all kinds of music and a thirst for making it. Along with Fernando Serna (drums/percussion) and Taylor Phillips (bass), they have all knit their passions into the musical family that is The Two Tracks. From their home in the postcard town of Sheridan, the band stirs western roots and wilderness philosophy into a stew of nourishing connection.
Huebner and Szewc trade duties as both vocalists and writers, with songs that traverse the male and female perspective. Many of their arrangements are built around the uniqueness of Huebner’s “standup” cello, which can take the role of a fiddle, or shift to a sultry orchestral solo, while sneaking in as an addition to the potent rhythm section. His opening track “Beautiful” sets the pace for the album – celebrating humanity and the places of glorious solitude that lie right under our noses with lines like “Heaven is right here my friends, staring back at you.”
The Two Tracks self-titled debut (2016), voted “Wyoming’s Best Album” by Wyoming Public Radio, was followed by the 2017 release of Postcard Town, their first introduction to Will Kimbrough as producer. Cheers to Solitude, also produced by Kimbrough, was recorded with the Grammy-winning team of Trina Shoemaker (mixing), and Sean Sullivan (engineer) at Nashville’s Butcher Shoppe Recording Studio. The album lives up to the integrity and quality of the band’s previous work while taking a significant step forward, with a sound that keeps us hitting repeat.
Two days before the official release, Glide is premiering in its entirety Cheers to Solitude, a melting pot of glorious four-part harmonies that make them an ideal daytime slot for a festival.
Words from Dave Huebner
Considering where our lives are at right now, I feel incredibly lucky that we were able to get into the Butcher Shoppe Recording Studio in Nashville in February and record this album, both before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the country, and before the legendary studio itself was closed because the property is being redeveloped. We loved working with Will Kimbrough [producer], and Sean Sullivan [engineer], and Will introduced us to the amazing Trina Shoemaker who did a fabulous job mixing this record. It’s such an honor to work with folks that are at the top of their field, especially being in a band from a small town in Wyoming. It was an honor. But really, the biggest kudos is owed to my bandmates Julie Szewc, Fernando Serna and Taylor Phillips. We’ve all traveled tirelessly for thousands and thousands of miles, playing hundreds of shows together over the years, and I feel like you can hear how that connection has grown stronger on this record. I love the balance and diversity between my songs and Julie’s songs, and how everyone in the band reacts and creates their parts to best match the individual nature of each song — it really is a great group of musicians to be a part of and a great group of friends and I know we are all very proud of this album.
