Midland tackles credibility, tension and intimacy on new album 'Let It Roll'

Regardless of the song lyrics, no one is Mr. Lonely in Midland — at least not anymore. 

Since the country band released its debut album in 2017, singer Mark Wystrach got engaged, and his fiancée is expecting their first child. Guitarist Jess Carson welcomed a son and a daughter with his wife Camille. And bassist Cameron Duddy, who doubles as the band's creative director, has more than a few new fans after winning critical acclaim — and an ACM nomination — for his direction of the band’s video for the song “Burn Out.” 

The group nabbed two Grammy nominations and a No. 1 hit with “Drinkin’ Problem.” Midland exhaustively toured the U.S. and played concerts overseas. The men memorably headlined their first sold-out show at Ryman Auditorium, where Duddy split his pants and returned to the stage wearing only his instrument and his underwear.

“That was my way of deflating the humiliation of it all,” he said. “I think it was probably equal parts funny to the guys, but also like, ‘Dude.’ No one wants to be the band that has the gimmicky thing. We would like to be the band that plays, and that’s the only thing you talk about.”

Midland’s sophomore album “Let It Roll” will be available Friday. With 14 songs that manage to be retro and contemporary, current and ageless, happy and heartbreaking, the collection will have people talking. Midland members wrote or co-wrote every song including the album’s first single “Mr. Lonely," which is out now.

Lyrics include: No, I ain't Mr. Right, I'm Mr. Right-Now| The one all the girls are talking about| The one and only, Mr. Lonely.

“It’s always fun to do an up-tempo song – especially in the summertime,” Wystrach explained. “You have the heartbreak songs, the cheating songs, the serious material, and you have the lighthearted, fun-loving side of this band, too. That song cuts right down to the core … with our influences Brooks & Dunn and Dwight Yoakam. It’s … kind of throwback and something that we think is brand new and unique. It’s very us.”

Some songs on the album date back years to Midland’s first recording session together in El Paso, Texas. The band said others were written “in transit” while they crisscrossed the country on tour. Members reconnected with many of the same songwriters with whom they wrote on their first album for round two. The album’s co-producers, Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, co-wrote five of the 14 cuts with band members. Other celebrated songwriters on the album include Marv Green, JT Harding, Liz Rose, Rhett Akins, Bob DiPiero and Jon Nite.

"Writing with Midland is very much a creative version of controlled chaos," Osborne explained. "It's a constant flow of lyrical and musical ideas. The guys definitely have strong feelings about what they will and won't say in the writing room but are always open to hear different ideas and are willing to chase them if they're right. Ironically, writing with them is what I imagine herding cattle would be like."

Midland worked to write and identify songs members thought would serve as cornerstones of the album. As soon as they finished writing “Mr. Lonely,” Carson said they knew the song would be a radio single. “Playboys,” a mid-tempo about the hardships of road life, “Cheatin’ Songs” that is a hat-tip to ‘70s and ‘80s country cheating songs, and the suggestive “Put the Hurt on Me” formed the album’s foundation and they built from there.

“You start to go, ‘O.K., what’s this landscape? What is this ride?’” Carson said. “You do your best to remove yourself, take a step back and imagine getting to play and what sort of ride you want to create. There was a lot of songs … hence going back to the old songs that didn’t fit with the architecture of the first album. That’s the fun part — singing about this world that someone will hopefully step into and live for 40 or 50 minutes.”

Carson wrote “Gettin’ the Feel” and “Let It Roll” and he took the lead vocal duties on “Roll Away.” Duddy stepped up to the microphone on “Lost in the Night.” The group admits tension is a driver for their creativity, but they also believe collaboration is among their greatest strengths.

The album, Duddy said, reflects the last two years and in many cases the hours members spent together on a tour bus. He explained Midland went through “growing pains,” came to terms with what it meant to be on stage and in limelight — and how it all impacted their family and band dynamic. Recently, the men had a day off in California and Wystrach and Duddy went to see Quentin Tarantino’s recent film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” The bass player halfway recalls a line from the movie about being so close you’re better than friends, but you’re not exactly as close as your wife.

The words remind him of his relationship with his bandmates.

“That’s what it feels like to be in this platonic marriage of being on the road and doing intimate stuff and working and living within feet of each other 98 percent of the time,” he said. “It boils down to, ‘How can we maintain this long-term?’ With that, you grow a completely new set of tools as far as communication goes. That’s what we work on.”

If the songs on “Let It Roll” feel more personal — even intentional — it’s because they are.

“It was written and recorded with a great deal of care, every bit of it,” Duddy said. “Every guitar lick, every drum tone, every guitar tone, every harmony – the whole thing, we worked on it until they told us we had to deliver it. The no. 1 objective for writing a song and recording it and picking tones that seem like they could live forever … is to make something that seems like it could be timeless.”

Reach Cindy Watts at 615-664-2227, ciwatts@tennessean.com or on Twitter @CindyNWatts.