Daniel Womack and Carter King of the band The Futurebirds will perform at My Morning Jacket’s annual Riviera Maya (Mexico) gathering, “One Big Holiday,” in April. My Morning Jacket guitarist Karl Brommel produced The Futurebirds’ last record, “Bloomin’.” The Futurebirds will play at Basalt River Park on Wednesday at 7 p.m. as part of the Basalt Summer Concert Series.
Courtesy of Ross Bastien
On March 12, 2020, the Athens, Georgia band Futurebirds were preparing to take the stage at the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride to kick off their national tour. Rolling Stone had just done a major feature on the band. They were touring in support of their alt-country-meets-psychedelic-rock album, Teamwork. It was like the band had caught some good fortune in a bottle.
The bottle turned out to be a balloon, and all the air let out when the show was canceled and the U.S. entered a lengthy COVID-19 quarantine. A little over four years later, the Futurebirds will take to another Colorado stage: On Wednesday night, they’ll perform on the banks of the Roaring Fork River as part of the Basalt Summer Concert Series.
The bottle and the lightning came together again.
Rolling Stone recently wrote another article about the band, but Futurebirds are set to release a new album called “Easy Company” on August 9th, which will be distributed by Dualtone Records, the label that also boasts The Lumineers, Shakey Graves, Mount Joy and Amos Lee. “Easy Company” is the band’s eighth studio album, following “Hampton’s Lullaby” (2010), “Via Flamina” (2012), “Baba Yaga” (2013), “Hotel Parties” (2015), “Portico” (2017), “Teamwork” (2019) and “Bloomin'” (2022).
The Futurebirds have a rich musical palette at their disposal, including two electric guitars (Carter King and Thomas Johnson), one acoustic guitar (Daniel Womack), pedal steel guitar (Kiffi Myers), keyboards (Spencer Thomas), bass (Brannen Miles), and drums (Tom Myers), reminiscent of a Bob Ross microdose. The four-part harmonies of King, Johnson, Thomas, and Womack each constitute their own instrument, and the ultimate weapon in the Futurebirds’ arsenal is catchy melodic hooks and memorable lyrics. Songwriting duties are shared equally between Womack, King, and Johnson.
The Futurebirds are one of the few bands to be loved by both Rolling Stone and indie rock magazine Pitchfork, which described them as “a loose mix of reverb-soaked guitars, screaming harmonies and powerful yet contemplative Southern rock rhythms.”
For “Bloomin'”, Futurebirds teamed up with My Morning Jacket guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Carl Broemel, who also performed and engineered the record. In 2023, Futurebirds released their first live album, “Thanks Y’all”. Broemel played all the songs with the band and also mastered the recording.
The Futurebirds will perform at Denver’s Mission Ballroom in February. According to Rolling Stone, the seven-piece band has a “sound that’s at once traditional and indie-fresh.” The band plays at Basalt River Park on Wednesday at 7 p.m., before kicking off a night of music on the river with Sittin’ on Strings at 5:30 p.m.
Courtesy of Ross Bastien
Womack, King and Johnson’s trio is reminiscent of the early Athens band Drive-By Truckers, which featured Mike Cooley, Patterson Hood and Jason Isbell who made one of the greatest Southern rock albums of all time. Bromell told Rolling Stone that the Futurebirds are taking their cues from one of the greatest bands in music history.
“It goes back to the Beatles, having healthy competition and nurturing the best music, not just one person leading the way,” Bromell told Rolling Stone. “It’s arguable that three people come out with the best songs. They were good at stepping back when they needed to and letting others take the lead.”
Womack echoed Bromell’s sentiments, saying, “Carter and Thomas are really great songwriters. They push me and help me improve. But we’re also getting better at writing songs together. I think that’s a big reason why the songs are getting better and better.”
The final element of the Futurebirds’ success is an astounding level of enthusiasm. The song “Easier Said” from Bloomin’ captures the band’s fun-loving spirit: “When I’m in a good mood, everything sounds better. And I’m in a good mood.”
The Futurebirds’ high-energy live shows helped reverse the demographic shift of their fanbase: Around the time “Teamwork” was released, Womack noticed college-aged kids at shows singing along to the band’s (at the time) new song, “Trippin’.”
One reason the Futurebirds are so popular with Gen Z is that they haven’t stopped playing college parties in 15 years. For a band whose members are approaching 40, they’re surprisingly good at keeping their Instagram page fresh and creative, and their posts are freely shared. A young fan threw his phone onstage at a Futurebirds show, and Womack took a selfie of himself with the crowd in the background before handing it back to its happy owner in the crowd. The band interacted with the crowd after the show, taking photos and signing merchandise.
The Futurebirds will play Denver’s Mission Ballroom in February. The Athens, Georgia, indie band plays Basalt River Park on Wednesday night before returning to Colorado for two shows at Red Rocks on Aug. 20 and 21, opening for Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats.
Courtesy of Ross Bastien
Connecting with fans is in the Futurebirds’ DNA: During the pandemic, they’ve played “socially distanced” house parties without amplification or large fan outreach.
“We try not to be too cool,” Womack says. “We’re just in it with the fans. We’re part of the fans, it’s a symbiotic relationship. We do our part to make the show fun, but to take it to the next level, the fans have to do their part too. People come to the show to have a good time, and I think the younger audience appreciates that. They have little brothers and sisters. Sometimes they bring their parents. We’ve been in this for a long time, so a lot of our original fans are coming with their kids.”
The Futurebirds recorded 21 songs in 10 days with producer Brad Cook at Sonic Ranch Recording Studios in El Paso in June 2023. They had visions of putting out a traditional double album, but were persuaded to partner with Dualtone and release 12 songs, saving the remaining nine for another album at a later date. They’ve been releasing singles since February leading up to the release of “Easy Company.” One of those singles, King’s “Colorados,” is an ode to the Centennial State. “Goodnight, Colorado. I’m all right. But why do you make it so easy for me to fly a little higher? I might lie low, I might dry up, but that sun’s gonna keep shining all night.”
The Futurebirds played Belly Up Aspen earlier this year, and later this summer they have two shows scheduled at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on August 20 and 21, opening for Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. This will be their second time performing at Red Rocks, having previously performed with Caamp last year.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Womack said of Morrison’s hallowed outdoor venue. “I’ve never seen Nathaniel live, but I’ve heard he puts on a high energy rock show, just like us. I’ve already gotten over my first Red Rocks show nerves, so I’m ready to go. It’s going to be awesome.”
Most bands that have been touring together in a van for 15 years might suffer from a serious case of collective fatigue, but not the Futurebirds. Nearly a decade ago, they made a conscious decision to make life on the road more enjoyable; they now make time for camping, fishing, and skiing and snowboarding in the winter. And musically, the band is a blast.
“We’re so grateful for this opportunity,” Womack said. “We’re literally doing what we set out to do when we started the band – playing the music we love to people who love it. It’s what we’ve always wanted to do. Time is a journey, and although 15 years seems like a long time, we feel in many ways we’re just getting started. We feel like our brightest days are yet to come.”
“I’m looking forward to the show in Basalt. It’s the last date of the first leg of the tour. It’s going to be awesome.”