Grammy Winner Mike Farris Releases ‘Heavy On The Humble’

Grammy Winner Mike Farris Releases ‘Heavy On The Humble’

Grammy-winner Mike Farris made the pilgrimage to legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama for his new album The Sound of Muscle Shoals, overseen by award-winning executive producer Rodney Hall (son of legendary producer and record man Rick Hall). His first album since 2018’s Silver & Stone, the album is the culmination of all of Farris’s musical influences and life lessons learned, captured in a location that holds deep meaning for him. Recorded in creative collaboration with members of the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and other session stalwarts of ‘The Shoals’ recording scene — Clayton Ivey (keys), Will McFarlane, Kelvin Holly, Wes Sheffield (guitars), Jimbo Hart (bass), and Justin Holder (drums) — they captured lightning in a bottle, conjuring up the intrinsic magic of the “Muscle Shoals Sound” and wrapping it around Farris’s heartfelt and hardscrabble blue-eyed soul vocals and songwriting.

Harris releases his first single “Heavy On The Humble”. Listen below.

“Heavy On The Humble”

 
Stream the new single HERE

Pre-order the new album HERE and HERE

The Sound of Muscle Shoals finds Farris at his best, intertwining the threads of gospel and rock ‘n’ roll, of faith and fire, the spiritual and earthly, bringing what Rolling Stone Country described as his “supersized voice filled with the electricity of Saturday night and the godly grace of Sunday mornings.”

The reflection on life’s lessons — hard learned and hard earned — and how to move forward is the underlying theme of the album. “Ease On” details Farris’s early life growing up in Franklin County, Tennessee. “We didn’t have much, and life always felt like a struggle, and for many years, I found it hard to go back there.” Farris admits. “But in a way, ‘Ease On’ pulled the curtain back and allowed me to take stock of where I came from and how I got here.”

The mantra of “ease on” continues in “Bird in The Rain.”

“That song came to me like many songs do, early in the morning around the kitchen table,” he says. “When I left New York to move back to Tennessee, it was partly because I had realized I couldn’t write the songs I needed to write up there. I had to get back home and have the soil under and all over my feet. ‘Bird in The Rain’ is proof of that. And ‘Sunset Road’ is about the futility of worry… that’s it in a nutshell. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of my songs are written directly at me, via the Great Spirit.”

“Bright Lights” was the last song written for the album. Farris says, “The idea behind the song is that the musician’s life is way more complicated than just what you see once the songs reach the performance stage. For all that to happen, it takes thousands of hours alone, working on the craft — countless ups and downs, self- doubt, big moments that fill you with hope, and low moments that test every ounce of meddle you have. It’s a deep, mysterious road we travel, that only a relative few are crazy enough to endure, and it demands everything. In the end, it’s all we know. It’s all I have ever done, and I wouldn’t trade it for all the riches in the world.”

Farris is bringing his legendary holiday soul review to select shows in the Southeast (see below). Look for 2025 tour dates to be announce soon and check here for more info.

TRACKLISTING:
Ease On
Heavy On The Humble
Swingin’
I’ll Come Runnin’
Bird In The Rain
Slow Train
Bright Lights
Learning To Love
Her
Before There Was You & I
Sunset Road