A country-tinged rocker that touches on Shiflett's punk-rock roots.
Arriving on the heels of 2022’s “Born & Raised” and “Long Long Year,” “Black Top White Lines” picks up right where Shiflett left off; albeit a bit more amplified. The quick-tempo song opens with a wall of unison guitars and doesn’t once let up. Thick stacks of different guitar tones (some of which are provided by legendary session man Tom Bukovac and uber-talented multi-instrumentalist Charlie Worsham) ride the pulsing groove provided by drums and bass with lead licks punctuating the bars between each verse. Written with Johnston and Osborne via Zoom in the middle of 2020, it wasn’t until Shiflett and Johnston were working out which songs to record that they realized just how rad “Black Top White Lines” could be. “Jaren and I were going over song ideas, and it’d been a minute since we wrote it, so when we re-visited the track he was like, ‘Dude you gotta record this one…It’s a banger!’,” remembers Shiflett. “Right away in the studio I could tell it was a bit of a left turn for me musically but that’s also what I like about it.”
“Black Top White Lines” is the first listen from a brand-new Chris Shiflett album due out in 2023 via his new label home at Blue Élan Records, the Los Angeles-based independent label celebrating its 9th anniversary this year. Fans will hear more about the Jaren Johnston-produced LP in the coming months but can count on hearing an album that represents Shiflett’s fully-realized vision of connecting L.A. to Nashville. “A big part of my inspiration to work with Jaren on this record was because I knew he’d push me out of my comfort zone into new territory,” Shiflett says.
Chris Shiflett - Black Top White Lines (Lyric Video)
Catch Chris Shiflett On Tour
Mar. 21 - Dublin, IE - Whelan’s
Mar. 22 - Glasgow, UK - Saint Luke’s
Mar. 24 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
Mar. 25 - Manchester, UK - Band on the Wall
Mar. 26 - Bristol, UK - Thekla
Mar. 28 - London, UK - Scala
For more information, please visit chrisshiflettmusic.com/shows.
Fans can purchase or stream the new song right here.