The No. 2 Local Spins story of the year broke the news that the much-buzzed-about Traverse City band had inked a contract with the eclectic label to release a new album. And check out the band’s video message.
Stepping Up: The Accidentals have signed with a much-respected national/international record label. (Photo/Anna Sink)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to the No. 2 story of the year. Local Spins’ series recapping the Top 10 stories of 2017 revisits a news story that the website broke nationally: We were the first media outlet to report that Traverse City alt-folk band The Accidentals had signed a label deal with Sony Music Masterworks, offering them international distribution of their next studio album. This story first ran at Local Spins on Jan. 9. (We updated it with links to follow-up stories and a review of the “Odyssey” album released in August.)
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As popular as Michigan’s The Accidentals have become over the past two years – selling out venues across the region and beyond – their stardom potential is about to ramp up considerably on a national and international scale.
The young, much-buzzed-about Traverse City band has signed a contract with New York’s Sony Music Masterworks, a highly regarded label that features renowned and eclectic artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Sonny Rollins, Tall Heights, Bill Frisell, Branford Marsalis, Bobby McFerrin, The Bad Plus, Yanni, Jackie Evancho, Robert Randolph and Joshua Bell.
On the Rise: The Accidentals have a whirlwind 2017 ahead. (Photo/Anna Sink)
Earning widespread national media praise as a breakout “act to watch,” the multi-instrumental duo of Savannah Buist and Katie Larson, with touring and studio drummer Michael Dause, will release its Sony Music Masterworks debut album this spring.
The genre-melding indie-folk band recorded the full-length album with engineer and co-producer Jason Lehning (Mat Kearney, Guster, George Jones, Alison Krauss) at North Carolina’s Echo Mountain Recording, with additional tracking at Nashville’s House of Blues Studios and Addiction Sound Studios.
The album boasts guest appearances by The Decemberists’ keyboard player Jenny Conlee and “one-man jam-band” guitarist Keller Williams, among others.
“It has been amazing,” Larson said of working “nonstop” on the new album, which follows independent release of the band’s 2014 “Bittersweet” album and 2016 “Parking Lot EP.”
SUPPORTING THE BAND’S INDIVIDUALITY: ‘A FAMILY THAT GETS US’
After meeting with label executives in New York City, The Accidentals chose Sony Music Masterworks for worldwide distribution of the new album due to “the longevity of their artists as career musicians” and the label’s ability “to support the bands’ work as composers, arrangers, producers and authors.”
Buist described label representatives and Sony Masterworks senior vice president Chuck Mitchell as “a family that gets us and our music, and wants to support that authentically.”
Added Larson: “We feel like we can be truly who we are and they appreciate the honesty.”
Although initially considered a classical crossover label spawned from a restructuring at Sony Music Entertainment several years ago, Sony Masterworks has signed a number of genre-bending artists, including singer-songwriter Allison Pierce, Boston progressive folk duo Tall Heights, future soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote and Minnesota avant garde jazz trio The Bad Plus.
The signing came after The Accidentals spent months gauging interest from other labels, and after recording some initial demos.
CD-Release Show: The Accidentals at Muskegon’s Frauenthal Center. (Photo/Jeff Brinn)
Sony Music Masterworks executives called the band a perfect fit for the eclectic label. Mitchell even cited the video for a 2015 “HopCat presents Local Spins Live at River City Studios” interview and performance session in Grand Rapids – hosted by Local Spins – for helping convince him to add The Accidentals to the fold. (Watch that Local Spins interview and performance session online here.)
The well-traveled band this week is in Nashville before launching a Western tour with Martin Sexton. The Accidentals will return to Michigan for February performances, including an appearance at WYCE’s Feb. 10 Jammie Awards at The Intersection in Grand Rapids — the beginning of what’s expected to be a whirlwind year for the band.
“We’re moving into this new year powerfully and without any fear and boldly,” Buist said in a video message to fans that you can watch here at Local Spins.
The Accidentals play a two-night New Year’s Celebration in Grand Rapids, headlining shows with Jake Allen at Founders Brewing on Dec. 30 and Dec. 31 (with the New Year’s Eve concert also featuring an appearance by The Crane Wives).
VIDEO: The Accidentals’ Record Label Announcement
MORE ABOUT THE ACCIDENTALS:
Michigan Album Reviews: The Accidentals embark on ‘Odyssey,’ plus Paucity, Hollywood Makeout, The War & Treaty, Antighost
The Hot Top 5: The Accidentals soar to top of Local Spins Hot Top 5 chart for August
The Accidentals Tour Diary: A 40-day ‘Odyssey’ of flat tires, broken axles, police calls, kind strangers and inspiring concerts
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