Natchez, the debut album from emerging rockers Bishop Gunn, will be released May 4 on Farm2Turntable with a sold-out album release party at the Franklin Theatre on May 8. The lead single, “Shine,” is out now and marks the first release of material tracked inside the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio since it reopened in January 2016.
Bishop Gunn recorded four songs for Natchez (named after the band’s hometown in Mississippi) during their 2017 Muscle Shoals Sound sessions with producer Mark Neill (The Black Keys). At MSSS, the band recorded simultaneous live tracking of guitars, drums, vocals, bass—something they’d never done before. The album will also feature a song tracked at Muscle Shoals’ FAME Studios as well as six songs cut at The Purple House, a Leiper’s Fork, TN home studio operated by Grammy-winning producer Casey Wasner.
Of the music, vocalist Travis McCready explains, “I’ve always been a fan of music—all kinds, all eras—it makes up the ingredients of who I am as a musician. From grunge, and 70s rock and roll to 60s soul and the blues of the decades before that and even some funk and hip-hop. Combining these influences into an authentic rock sound was the goal when we first started working on this album, and with the variety of players in this band, it came very naturally.”
Bishop Gunn will be on tour throughout the summer including select stops supporting Blackberry Smoke, Black Stone Cherry and The Outlaws, Pilgrimage Festival and the Bishop Gunn Crawfish Boil May 12—a hometown celebration in Natchez.
Bishop Gunn consists of Travis McCready, Burne Sharp (drums), Drew Smithers (guitar) and Ben Lewis (bass). Following many years in steelwork in Natchez, MS, McCready decided to go into music full time. After both playing music in various incarnations, McCready and Sharpe connected at the big annual festival in Natchez. A friendship and collaboration formed, rooted in the history and sounds of their home and the surrounding Delta. They added members and Bishop Gunn’s current lineup stuck shortly thereafter. Now, the band members live together, write and have set up a home studio in a farmhouse just outside Leiper’s Fork, TN. They rehearse at a repurposed grocery store in the area.
