The Lil Smokies’ high-energy acoustic music has evolved into its own distinctive sound. With a nearly five-year gap from their last album, 2020’s Tornillo, the band returns with two new members, bassist Jean Luc Davis and banjo player, Sam Armstrong-Zickefoose, to add to the core trio of the core trio of dobro player Andy Dunnigan, Seattle-based lead guitarist the Reverend Matthew Rieger, and fiddler Jake Simpson, now dividing his time between Montana and Oklahoma. To showcase the new sound and augmented quintet lineup, the band will release a brand new album Break of the Tide, available via Americana Vibes on April 4, 2025.
Heralding the new album is the lead single “Montana Flower,” which will be released Friday, February 7, 2025. Pre-save the single HERE.
“Montana Flower,” according to Simpson, is a love song to a local girl from Whitefish, comparing her beauty to the geographical marvels of the area, including Big Mountain. “That’s the imagery that was going through my head when I wrote the song,” he acknowledged, “There’s a lot of mystery in Whitefish. It’s an interesting mix of people there from all over the world alongside the locals who have been there forever. Lots of cosmic energy keeping an eye out for my love when I’m not there.” With reflective picking over bowed bass, the lyrics are chock full of symbolic nods to nature marveling that all the beauty in the place in the world can’t hold a candle to that of the subject of the amorous hymn.
Larkspur, purple columbine
Bitterroot, striking as they are
All pale like winter’s grey
When held up next to you
Under Big Sky
Big Mountain stand
Keep watchful eye
On my Montana Flower
Returning to Texas (where they recorded Tornillo), The Lil Smokies cut Break of the Tide at a Dallas-Fort Worth studio with local producer Robert Ellis, the album title representing, according to Andy, “a turning point, a pivot… the old world vs. the new world. It’s like a bug set in amber, an artifact from that period of time. We didn’t drown under the tide.”
“One of the biggest differences between this album and Tornillo is we hadn’t played these songs live before we recorded them,” added Jake. “These tracks really took shape in the studio. For the most part, we used whole takes, rather than overdubs and edits. It’s a vibey record.”
The album finds the band expanding beyond the bluegrass genre with a spacious, airy, contemplative set of “more introspective, nuanced” songs which slow down to reflect the wide-open spaces and natural beauty of the state where they first took shape.
Break of the Tide marks a turning point for The Lil Smokies, who are ready to hit the road running this year, reinventing themselves for the long haul. To celebrate the new album, the band has announced a 24-date national tour kicking off with a Colorado run and continuing the run at key venues across the midwest and East Coast.
A complete list of tour dates is here:
Apr-3, Frisco, CO, 10 Mile Music Hall
Apr-4, Denver, CO, Ogden Theatre
Apr-5, Ft Collins, CO, Washington's
Apr-8, Kansas City, MO, Bottleneck
Apr-9, Minneapolis, MN, Turf Club
Apr-10, Stoughton, WI, Stoughton Opera House
Apr-11, Indianapolis, IN, HIFI
Apr-12, Evanston, IL, SPACE
Apr-15, New York, NY, Mercury Lounge
Apr-16, Northampton, MA, Iron Horse
Apr-17, Cambridge, MA, The Sinclair
Apr-18, Burlington, VT, Higher Ground
Apr-19, Portsmouth, NH, 3D Art Space
Apr-23, Pittsburgh, PA, Thunderbird
Apr-24, Wayne, PA, 118 North
Apr-25, Charlottesville, VA, The Southern
Apr-26, Washington, DC, Pearl Street Warehouse
Apr-27, Wilkesboro, NC, Merlefest
From their humble beginnings playing the “holy trinity” of Missoula, Whitefish and Bozeman in Montana, The Lil Smokies have toured all over the U.S. and abroad in Iceland, Mexico and Canada, performing at such prestigious venues as Red Rocks and festivals like Telluride, High Sierra, LOCKN’, Freshgrass and FloydFest. The group earned top prize at the Northwest String Summit outside of Portland in 2013 and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado in 2015, which proved the catalyst for more touring success through the end of the decade.
For more information and to purchase tickets to all shows, please visit: thelilsmokies.net.
