Rayland Baxter - True Violet

True Violet finds Rayland Baxter back on ATO Records with eleven songs about loss, solitude and slowly finding your feet again. It is his first studio album since 2022's If I Were a Butterfly.

The Nashville songwriter, son of the late pedal steel player Bucky Baxter, wrote this one during a long stretch alone in the Tennessee hills, piling up more than seventy songs before narrowing them down. The title makes sense once you hear his reasoning: the reds of anger and the blues of sadness bleeding together into something closer to acceptance. It is also the first record he has made without his father around.

Nick Waterhouse and Paul Butler share production duties, and their touch is warm and unfussy, leaving plenty of room for Baxter's easygoing voice to wander. Opener Better Man, co-written with Tyler Ballgame, who also sings backing vocals, sets an honest, open-hearted tone. Songs like Haymaker and Real Bad Rut carry the album's mix of grit and grace, and Oh My Love brings things home on a tender note.

This is a record about grief and recovery from someone who sounds like he has made peace with both. Fans who have followed him since Feathers & Fishhooks will hear a songwriter at his most personal.