Today, award-winning Bay Area-based roots powerhouse AJ Lee and Blue Summit (“AJLBS”) released “When You Change Your Mind,” the new single from their forthcoming LP I’ll Come Back, due out August 20th. Of the band, Bluegrass Today said that “it is hard to argue with their success. Lee is part of the same class of [Youth In Bluegrass] artists that produced Molly Tuttle. In fact, AJ was a member of Molly’s family band for many years, performing as The Tuttles with AJ Lee when they were teens. Now heading up her own group, Lee is out front on lead vocals and mandolin, supported by Molly’s younger brother, Sullivan Tuttle, and Jesse Fichman on gui-tar, Jan Purat on fiddle, and Chad Bowen on bass,” they added. “Like many young performers, when Lee started her group in 2015 they began to experiment and push against the boundaries of what they had grown up playing, but in the end the grass calls them home.”
Lee said the song is about drinking and thinking about “how you’ll never be deserving of some-one who loves you because you’ll only hurt them in the end. You’ve also got your own issues and it’s too much trouble to explain yourself to someone else.” While AJLBS enjoys stretching their creative muscles, Lee reveals that they always come back to their favorite genre—bluegrass.
“When You Change Your Mind” follows the release of “Lemons and Tangerines,” and “Magda-lene,” of which Country Queer noted, “This band is good in the bluegrass way…they use their skill not to show off, but to build songs that are sturdy as houses, with plenty of room for guests, and ready for any weather.”
LISTEN: “LEMONS AND TANGERINES”
LISTEN: “MAGDALENE”
Unlike their first record, which featured experimentation with session musicians and electric in-struments, I’ll Come Back is a pure reflection of the live sound of the group, hearkening back to their acoustic roots. Each band member performs at their peak, and the variety of songs on the record caters to their broad fanbase. Certain tracks (“Put Your Head Down” and “Faithful”) fall more in the classic bluegrass realm of songwriting, while others (“Lemons and Tange-rines” and “I’ll Come Back”) fall into that hard-to-define realm of acoustic Americana that blends mesmerizing lyricism and acoustic mastery.
Although falling loosely under the bluegrass label, AJLBS generally plays sans banjo, using their configuration effectively to create unique space and texture in the arrangements not as commonly found in the music of their peers. Drawing from influences such as country, soul, swing, rock, and jam music, the band uses the lens of bluegrass as a vessel through which to express and ex-plore the thread that binds and unifies all great music.
TOUR DATES
AUG 7 - The Independent @ 8:00pm - San Francisco, CA [ALBUM RELEASE SHOW]*
AUG 13 - Caffe Lena @ 8:00pm - Saratoga Springs, NY
AUG 14 - Podunk Bluegrass Festival 2021 @ 12:20pm - Goshen, CT
AUG 15 - Hardeman Orchards @ 7:30pm - Red Hook, NY
AUG 16 - Truro Vineyards @ 8:00pm - North Truro, MA
AUG 18 - Watermelon Wednesdays @ 3:00pm - Williamsburg, MA
AUG 18 Watermelon Wednesdays @ 7:30pm - Williamsburg, MA *SOLD OUT*
AUG 19 - Music Hall @ 6:00pm - Portsmouth, NH
AUG 19 - Music Hall @ 8:00pm - Portsmouth, NH
AUG 20 - Mauch Chunk Opera House @ 8:00pm - Jim Thorpe, PA
AUG 21 - Della Mae's Fam Fest @ 2:00pm - Round Hill, VA
AUG 22 - Stages Music Arts @ 7:00pm - Cockeysville, MD
AUG 26 - Casa Flamenca, Inc. @ 7:30pm - Albuquerque, NM
AUG 27 - Wildwood Sounds @ 7:00pm - Del Norte, CO
AUG 28 - Taos Center for the Arts @ 7:30pm - Taos, NM
AUG 29 - Number Thirty Eight @ 8:00pm - Denver, CO
AUG 30 - MainStage Brewing Company @ 6:00pm - Lyons, CO
AUG 31 - Sherbino Theater @ 7:00pm - Ridgway, CO
SEP 1 - Dolores River Brewery @ 7:00pm - Dolores, CO
SEP 3 - Four Corners Folk Festival 2021 @ 7:00pm - Pagosa Springs, CO
SEP 10 - Sierra Meadows @ 7:30pm - Ahwahnee, CA
SEP 11 - Black Oak Concert Series @ 7:00pm - Tuolumne, CA
SEP 18 - Whale Rock Music Festival @ 7:00pm - Templeton, CA, United States
SEP 19 - Lodi Grape Festival Grounds @ 6:00pm - Lodi, CA
SEP 24 - FreshGrass Festival 2021 @ 11:00am - North Adams, MA
SEP 22-25 - AMERICANAFEST - Nashville, TN
OCT 1 - Sisters Folk Festival 2021 @ 12:00pm - Sisters, OR
OCT 8 - McCabe’s Guitar Shop @ 8:00pm - Santa Monica, CA
OCT 9 - Paramount Ranch @ 3:00pm - Agoura Hills, CA
OCT 30 - Felton Music Hall @ 8:30pm - Felton, CA
NOV 20 - Hopmonk Tavern @ 8:00pm - Novato, CA^
* w/ The Sam Chase Trio & The Coffis Brothers
^w/ The Coffis Brothers
