Joshua Hedley will release his anticipated new album Neon Blue on April 22nd, 2022 via New West Records. The 12-song set was co-produced by Jordan Lehning (Rodney Crowell) & Skylar Wilson (Justin Townes Earle) and mixed by Kyle Lehning (George Strait, Randy Travis). Neon Blue is the follow up to his critically acclaimed 2018 debut Mr. Jukebox, which was released by Jack White’s Third Man Records. Hedley’s breakout debut showcased his deep knowledge of country music history, in particular the beery ballads of the 1950s and ‘60s. His mentors were George Jones, Ray Price, and Glen Campbell, but his most remarkable accomplishment was putting his own spin on their style. Neon Blue, on the other hand, examines a very different, often forsaken era: the early 1990s.
“The last bastion of country music,” says Hedley, “was the early 1990s, roughly 1989 through 1996. You could turn on the radio and immediately know you’re hearing a country song. You could still hear steel guitar and fiddle. But there was a hard fork around 1996 or ‘97, when country veered off into pop territory. Neon Blue asks, What if that fork never happened? What if country kept on sounding like country?”
The era may have been dismissed by traditionalists at the time as slick or overproduced, but Hedley finds something exciting in that sound. Neon Blue plays up the excitement of bigger-than-life choruses, the relatable emotions of those sad-eyed ballads, and the inventiveness of the lively production. Hedley says, “The sound is modern, but it’s still discernibly country.”
Joshua Hedley’s Neon Blue will be available across digital platforms, on compact disc, and standard black vinyl. An extremely limited to 150 “Robert’s Fried Bologna” color vinyl edition autographed by Joshua Hedley will be available at Independent Retailers across Tennessee. A limited “Coke Bottle Clear” color vinyl edition, as well as an autographed compact disc edition, will be available at Independent Retailers worldwide.
Joshua Hedley Neon Blue Track Listing:
- Broke Again
- Country & Western
- Old Heartbroke Blues
- The Last Thing In The World
- Down To My Last Lie
- Free (One Heart)
- Neon Blue
- Bury Me With My Boots On
- Found In A Bar
- Let’s Make A Memory
- Wonder If You Wonder
- River In The Rain
