Rayland Baxter has released his new single “Rubberband Man,” off his forthcoming album, If I Were A Butterfly out November 4th on ATO. The track is an ode to Thunder Sound, where Baxter recorded the majority of his new album. Originally a rubber band factory, the Kentucky recording studio still has remnants of its former life. “There’s rubber bands all over the property at Thunder Sound,” says Baxter. “in the earth, in the concrete, used as insulation for the studio. I took a mishmash of images in my head, these flash scenarios, and wrote a short, fun song that’s really about staying flexible and rolling with the punches.”

The single comes with a wild romp of a music video shot in Miami and featuring Baxter and a lady love wilding out in seedy hotel rooms, dancing in sunflower fields and generally being as free as the songs subject matter. The video was directed by Quincy Perkins.

If I Were A Butterfly is the fourth studio album from Rayland Baxter. The album examines loss and existential ruminations on happiness and freedom and was completed in the wake of his father, the legendary Bucky Baxter’s (Bob Dylan’s longtime pedal steel player and member of Steve Earle’s Dukes) passing. His late father appears on the album along with a host of collaborators including Shakey Graves, Zac Cockrell of Alabama Shakes, members of Cage the Elephant, Stella, Rose, Morning Teleportation’s Travis Goodwin, and legendary Motown drummer Miss Bobbye Hall, among many others. If I Were A Butterfly was in large part recorded while Baxter was living alone at Thunder Sound, an abandoned rubber-band factory turned studio in Kentucky with later sessions taking place in California, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. 

The album was produced by Baxter, Tim O’Sullivan and Kai Welch and is available for pre-order and pre-save today HERE.

Photo Courtesy: Citizen Kane Wayne