While it would be easy for a rapidly rising band like AJ Lee & Blue Summit to chase current trends or popular sounds, the Northern California quartet is more interested in discovering themselves and their music through sonics and textures truly their own. This is not the bluegrass of ambitious musicians intent on industry success, this is music made solely for the joy of making it.
On July 19th, Lee & Blue Summit are sharing the fruits of their process with the world with their third full-length album, City of Glass. Produced by The California Honeydrops’ Lech Wierzynski and releasing on Signature Sounds—making it the band’s first label-backed record—City of Glass finds Lee (mandolin), Sullivan Tuttle (guitar), Scott Gales (guitar), and Jan Purat (fiddle) still carrying the youthful, festival-parking-lot energy that brought them together, but with the genuine ease and confidence of recording artist veterans well beyond their years.
Today, to announce their upcoming release, Lee & Blue Summit shared City of Glass’s first single, “Hillside.” Opening with Lee accompanying her own singing with a warm mandolin, underpinned by a drone from Purat’s fiddle, “Hillside” feels old and wise; an Appalachian dirge from the perspective of a hill being eroded by weather and chipped by the tools of man. “Still, the hill aspires to become a mountain and refuses to give in to the bombardment of forces,” says Lee, whose metaphor stretches well beyond the geology of a hillside. “This song represents women's empowerment, resilience, and strength,” she says. A relisten of “Hillside” with that in mind opens a whole new door for interpretation and inspiration; the first look into Lee & Blue Summit’s holistic approach to the creation of City of Glass.
Fans can hear “Hillside” today and be sure to pre-order or pre-save City of Glass ahead of its July release right here. AJ Lee & Blue Summit hit the road again on May 2nd in McCloud, California. A full list of tour dates can be found below or at bluesummitmusic.com/tour-dates.
More About City of Glass: City of Glass is a California affair, through and through. Lee & Blue Summit brought in Lech Wierzynski, of the California Honeydrops, to produce; they tapped Bay Area steel guitarist Mikiya Matsuda for a couple of tracks; plus they had Californian banjo player, and instructor, Luke Abbott lend five-string to a number. The group is proud to be Californian, proud to represent the neo-traditionalist bluegrass and folk from the state and the mighty communities surrounding them. Their music shines with this “think global, act local” sort of approach.
Wierzynski prioritized making the band sound exactly like themselves, producing the vocals to be and sound live whenever possible, moving the band along when a take checked all the boxes and still bringing in genre and aesthetic inspirations that feel brand new. City of Glass, as a result, is an album that’s just as much country soul and gritty, bluesy Americana as it is bluegrass, all framed through a California folk lens while clearly primed for a much wider audience.
City of Glass Tracklisting:
Hillside
He Called Me Baby
Seaside Town
I Can’t Find You at All (feat. Molly Tuttle)
City of Glass
Toys
I Still Think of Her
Sick on a Plane
Bakersfield Clay
Bedside Window (feat. Lech Wierzynski)
Solicitor Man
All I Know
Catch AJ Lee & Blue Summit On Tour:
May 2 - McCloud, CA - McCloud River Bed & Breakfast
May 3 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
May 4 - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
May 7 - Hood River, OR - The Ruins
May 9 - Arcata, CA - Humboldt Brews
May 10 - Sebastopol, CA - Hopmonk Tavern
May 11 - Santa Cruz, CA - Moe’s Alley
May 15 - Flagstaff, AZ - Yucca North
May 16 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar
May 17 - Tucson, AZ - Club Congress
May 19 - Agoura Hills, CA - Topanga Fiddle Festival
May 26 - Grass Valley, CA - Strawberry Music Festival
June 8 - Wind Gap, PA - Wind Gap Bluegrass Festival
June 20-21 - Telluride, CO - Telluride Bluegrass Festival
June 27 - Victor, ID - Music on Main
June 29-30 - Sisters, OR - Big Ponderoo Festival
July 6 - Quincy, CA - High Sierra Music Festival
July 9 - Rockford, IL - Anderson Japanese Gardens
July 11 - Sheboygan, WI - Levitt Shell
July 12 - Buchanan, MI - Buchanan Commons Music Series
July 13 - Frankfort, IL - Frankfort Bluegrass on the Green Festival
July 20-21 - Darrington, WA - Darrington Bluegrass Festival
Aug. 13 - Ridgefield, CT - CHIRP
Aug. 16 - Philadelphia, PA - Philadelphia Folk Festival
Aug.17 - Manchester, VT - Green Mountain Bluegrass and Roots
Aug. 24 - Novato, CA - Hopmonk Tavern
Aug. 25 - Washoe Valley, NV - Bowers Bluegrass Festival
Aug 30 - Chattanooga, TN - Nightfall Concert Series
Aug. 31 - Mill Spring, NC - Earl Scruggs Music Festival
Sept. 14 - Bristol, VA - Bristol Rhythm and Roots Festival
Sept. 18 - Nashville, TN - Americana Music Festival
Sept. 20 - Winfield, KS - Walnut Valley Festival
For ticket information, please visit www.bluesummitmusic.com/tour-dates.
