Americana newcomer Jack Schneider’s debut LP, Best Be On My Way, is a testament to tradition, timelessness, and the modern relevance of old ways. Schneider is a budding record producer, wise songwriter, NYU grad, Vince Gill’s rhythm guitarist, and, very relevant to this album’s recording process, a tape machine enthusiast. In spite of a few reluctant anachronisms, the recording of Best Be On My Way was a scene plucked straight from 1972 with a cast of some of Nashville’s most beloved musical characters—the aforementioned Gill, David Rawlings, Stuart Duncan, Dennis Crouch, and more—huddled around vintage microphones running straight to tape; the tried and true, old school way. The resulting album feels warm and lively, full of compelling stories and unforgettable sonic motifs. Best Be On My Way should be a shoo-in for fans of The Band, Bob Dylan, or James Taylor—and contemporary favorites like Gillian Welch, Watchhouse, or The Avett Brothers.
Best Be On My Way is out now and can be streamed or purchased at this link, and be sure to check out the official music video for “Josephine” and an intimate, in-studio version of “Don’t Look Down.” Schneider will be performing on the world-famous Grand Ole Opry on November 29th. For upcoming tour dates and ticket information, please visit jackschneidermusic.com/tour.
More About Best Be On My Way: Best Be On My Way was recorded on a hot day in June at Nashville’s Sound Emporium. Inside the air-conditioned studio, there was a slight quiver in the air—the hum of a tape machine, the impression that the atmosphere was churning inside a black-and-white photograph. There was an unspoken sense, among those who knew Schneider well, of momentousness: the session itself felt as though it were a real-life culmination of a long and tenuous journey on Schneider’s part, in which he had collected friends and strangers along the way and gathered them together for the odyssey’s retelling. From childhood friends to recent mentors, the motley crew of musicians sat in a wide circle in the live room as around a campfire, much to the contemporarily trained Engineers’ dismay. The players themselves were evidence of a gap Schneider is bridging between musical generations: Grammy award-winning artists Vince Gill and David Rawlings played alongside both Stuart Duncan and Dennis Crouch—longtime Nashville session musicians—and Liv Greene and Griffin Photoglou, two twenty-something artists fresh out of college.
Throughout the long months of quarantine, Schneider began working intensively with former Gruhn Guitars colleague and frequent collaborator, Wes Langlois. Shut up in the studio together for weeks, the two wrote, recorded, and released what they referred to as “vanishing albums:” full-length records accessible for a week at a time each during the pandemic, after which they were removed from streaming services and unavailable for physical purchase. It was from these ephemeral collections of songs that the seed for Schneider’s (permanent) debut record was born.
Best Be On My Way Tracklist:
Josephine
Farewell Carolina
Marietta
Tennessee
Best Be On My Way
Don’t Look Down
Slow Things Down
Nothing Left To Show
In The Morning
Del Rio Blues
