Punk veteran. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee. Alt-country songwriter. Modern-day guitar hero, Chris Shifflet releases his new single ‘Long, Long Year’. For more than 25 years, Foo Fighters six-stringer Chris Shiflett has blurred the lines between genre and generation, balancing his full-band projects with an ongoing solo career. With his new single, “Long, Long Year,” Shiflett turns a new page, building a bridge between his native California and Nashville, Tennessee, where he recorded this new tune with legendary producer Vance Powell and a small roster of Americana all-stars: bassist Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs, Jack White, Wanda Jackson), drummer Julian Doro (Eagles of Death Metal, The Whigs), keyboardist Mike Webb, steel guitarist Luke Schneider, and mandolinist/harmony vocalist Sierra Hull.
Kicking off with a swaggering drum pattern, “Long, Long Year’s” mid-tempo, piano and pedal steel-filled arrangement is a windows-down, let-it-all-out singalong. “I spent a lot of time alone at my studio in L.A. during the first part of the lockdown just woodshedding tunes,” says Chris. “The line ‘It’s been a long, long year’ was rattling around my head for obvious reasons, but I framed it as a love song.”
The resulting tune feels like a release, sung with uplifting emotion and forward-looking, both in the intended love song framing and through the greater, pandemic-induced dread lens. Watch the lyric video for “Long, Long Year” HERE.
“My trip out to Nashville in March of 2021 was my first time recording any solo material since I made Hard Lessons. I hadn’t done much traveling post-covid lockdown so I was a little nervous heading out there to work with a producer and roomful of musicians I didn’t really know. In true Nashville style we made our introductions and got right down to work, hammering out the basic tracks in a few hours. Vance was great and made me feel right at home, and the group of players he put together were on point. Next day we did some overdubs and Sierra came in and added mandolin and harmony vocals on ‘Long, Long Year’ and the tracks started coming together,” Chris said of recording the ‘Long, Long Year.’
Stay tuned to chrisshiflettmusic.com for more new music in the coming months.
