Edie Brickell & New Bohemians

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians found the name of their fifth studio album, Hunter and the Dog Star (Feb 19), in an unexpected place: the sprawling night sky.  Though she knew Orion's Belt and Sirius, the furiously burning "Dog Star", Brickell recently learned of the movement that connects the constellation in a single phrase.  She immediately recognized herself, her bandmates, and their musical journey together in the stars.

"Sirius follows Orion, the hunter, through the night sky, and then Sirius is the brightest star just before dawn," she explains.  "That just got me. [This album] is a new day for the band."

Since their earliest gigs in Dallas in 1985, Brickell and Kenny Withrow (guitar), Brad Houser (bass), Brandon Aly (drums) and John Bush (percussion) have always found their way back to one another, even when their respective pursuits pulled them in different directions.  After "What I Am", the smash single off 1988's debut album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, vaulted the band onto the national stage, New Bohemians recorded their sophomore album, 1990's Ghost of a Dog, before Brickell launched a solo career and started a family.  They would continue to sporadically write and record together throughout the '90s and 2000s, but it would be another 16 years before they would release 2006's Stranger Things, and 12 more until 2018's Rocket, which brought them back to Texas and each other.   

Recorded in Austin at Arlyn Studios, Rocket is a joyful reunion that brims with the varied influences each New Bohemian encountered on their own, from Brickell's folk storytelling to Withrow's exploratory riffs and Houser, Aly and Bush's percussion that form a slow-and-steady heartbeat to explosive rhythms throughout.  New Bohemians were eager to keep writing and indulging these impulses, and so they did: they returned to Arlyn to work with producer Kyle Crusham, who encouraged their experimental urges on Hunter and the Dog Star, which blends anthemic pop-rock ("My Power"), languid lounge ("Miracles"), funk ("Don't Get In the Bed Dirty"), folk ("Rough Beginnings") and more while bringing new creative breakthroughs to the table.

"This is the quickest turnaround we've ever done in between records," says Withrow.  "That's mainly because we were feeling the momentum and wanted to strike while the iron was hot... we have a lot of catch-up work, and we still feel there's a ton of that to do for all this time apart."

Hunter and the Dog Star is both a new beginning and a homecoming in many ways: it's a tribute to their three decades and counting of collaboration and camaraderie, and an eclectic blend of the sounds, textures and experiments that shaped each member on their musical journeys along the way.