We hope you can come out on Thursday, October 22 for a special early True Violet release celebration with Rayland Baxter! Rayland will join us at 4:00 PM that day for a short in-store performance followed by an album signing on the eve of the official album release date. Wristbands are required to participate in the album signing for all 13+. (Kids 12 & under don’t require a wristband if attending with a wristband holding adult.) While supplies last wristbands are available with preorders of True Violet vinyl or CD in the record shop & from our webstore here. Preorders are only available for local, event pickup on 10/22. We’re pumped to host Rayland at Grimey’s again and to be able to celebrate his new album with him and all of you.
Baxter spent the years around the release of his last album, 2024’s If I Were A Butterfly, a record shaped by solitude and the loss of his father, touring heavily and weathering difficult relationships and dynamics in his personal life. He had built an enviable career—releasing acclaimed records and touring alongside Jason Isbell, The Lumineers, Kacey Musgraves, and Lauryn Hill—but upon his return to his quiet Tennessee hometown, he turned inward and finally found the stillness to confront old patterns. After more than a decade as a working musician, Baxter was familiar with the rhythms of making records, but when it came time to begin again, he found himself unsure of where to start.
"I sat in my chair alone for a year and wrote a bunch of songs, and what started off as an attempt to write a record got sideswiped by mediocre attempts I wouldn't even sing to my dog," Baxter recalls. "Then, like many times over the last three years, I called my sister. We talked about life and family and love and heartache, and our individual experiences with all of that. She simply encouraged me to write about what I was feeling, something I was avoiding in the early stages of writing.” Rayland took his sister's advice and began writing with a newfound vulnerability. He'd sit alone each evening with his guitar for hours, excavating experiences and emotions.
From that trove of material he wrote during those quiet evenings came True Violet, a sweeping, tender, and sometimes raucous ode to reckoning and reconciliation. Though the writing process was solitary, the production of True Violet became a story of friendship, family, and collaboration. The album was co-produced by Paul Butler and Nick Waterhouse, with recording taking place over the course of a year and punctuated by moments of doubt—scrapping songs, returning to the drawing board, and calling in friends, including Tyler Ballgame and Shakey Graves (Alejandro Rose-Garcia).
We look forward to seeing Rayland perform songs from his new album several months before his True Violet headlining tour begins. We hope you’re able catch his set at Grimey’s and celebrate his new record with us. Lock in your copy of True Violet by preordering your copy in the record shop or on our site here. This is a rain or shine affair, so please keep that in mind when planning to attend our event. If you’ve never visited Grimey’s before we recommend you check out our parking tips on our site here.
