"When I first heard Asleep at the Wheel and their Bob Wills tribute, it blew my mind that there was a band out there still playing this kind of music," Hedley says, adding, "At its core Western Swing is just dance music. Bob Wills didn't play theatres; he played dance halls. The music is for dancing, and that's what I wanted to come through on these songs."
Folds' subsequent work as a solo artist has elevated his status even further; he has since expanded into scoring for film and television, producing for (and collaborating with) other artists, writing an autobiography, doing a bit of acting, and mounting tours that emphasize an interactive quality.
"We had a few windows in mid-winter and it really felt like there was an urgency to capture a moment in time with these songs, performances, people involved, and against the political backdrop," says Ben Whitely. "The record really feels like a capture instead of a meticulous construction. Part of Joan's concept was not only to go to a place but to draw on the community of musicians from that place."
"A couple years ago Max (Kakacek) and I were both on the brink of moving across the country to be closer to the people we were dating at the time. Over the span of a few months both relationships somewhat abruptly crumbled, leaving us with equal parts confusion and sadness, mourning the futures that would have accompanied those relationships as well as the relationships themselves."