King Calaway’s new albumTennessee’s Waitinghas been four years in the making — meaning that its very creation took place while the world was changing, opinions were evolving, and a pandemic was raging.
But that wasn’t all.
Because over the past four years, the four-piece band made up ofChris Deaton,Simon Dumas, Chad Michael Jervis and Caleb Miller found themselves getting to know each other better from a professional point of view. “It’s been a work in progress just finding who our true identity is and what kind of band that wewantit to be,” Jervis, 28, tells PEOPLE in a recent interview.
“And after four years, we felt like we had a lot to say,” adds Miller, 22.
And while some of King Calaway’s sophomore album was created during the isolating days of the pandemic, there was another piece of the album that materialized when music extraordinaireZac Brownentered the picture.
King Calaway and Zac Brown.king calaway
king calaway
“We had released an EP in 2021,” remembers Jervis of King Calaway’s EPMidnight, which included a collaboration withLainey Wilsonon “Good Time to Me.” “Zac had gotten ahold of that, and he really wanted to work on some stuff with us. And we were like, ‘Absolutely, you are one of our heroes.’”
Today, Brown not only remains King Calaway’s collective hero, but also their record producer.
“After we made a little bit of a pivot [on our 2021 EP] to lean into more of abandysound, to have the guy that does it the best call you and say he liked it just felt really good,” explains drummer Chris Deaton, 30, who is currently out with his King Calaway bandmates on the Zac Brown Band’sFrom the Fire Tour.“And then he even took that sound to the next level once we started working with him.”
Granted, the U-turn that the record was about to take wasn’t as jarring as one might think, as Brown found a way of easing his influence and sound into what King Calaway had already begun to master.
“We ended up cutting a bunch of stuff with Zac thatwebrought to him, and then we cut a bunch of stuff thathebrought to us,” says Jervis of the album that features the members of King Calaway collaborating with Brown on the folksy cut “When I Get Home.” “And then there was this combination of songs that we got out of the pandemic that had us wanting to push our boundaries a little bit and just explore who the four of us as King Callaway really are as songwriters and as a band.”
Adding to what the four could create together was also the chance to collaborate with some of country music’s finest, asTennessee’s Waitingincludes collaborations with artists such as Grammy Award nomineeMarcus King.
“We had just written ‘Heathen’ a few days before we went into the studio,” remembers Jervis. “We showed it to Zac, and he really loved it. He and Marcus have a close relationship and we’ve been fans of Marcus for a long time. And so, the moment that Zac said that Marcus would sound incredible on [‘Heather’], we were just like, ‘Yeah.’ " He laughs. “He absolutely murdered it!”
Equally as impressive is King Calaway’s collaboration with ACM Award winnerHailey Whitterson the ultra-sweet “Let It Flow.”
Certainly,Tennessee’s Waitingserves as a 16-track project that doesn’t just take theEagles-esque foursome’s musicianship from one level to another but has them catapulting over the levels of country music at warped speed. At its core, it’s a sophomore effort filled with a kaleidoscope of tracks that showcases all that the band can offer to not only country music, but a plethora of different genres.
But for now, they are just taking one step at a time.
“I feel like over the past four and a half years now, we’ve became like brothers,” concludes Miller. “There’s no filter sometimes. We’re not afraid to tell each other that we suck in certain areas," he jokes. “We’re just super happy in the place that we’re at.”
source: people.com
