Moonsville Collective

“Moonsville Collective musicians reek of heavy-duty tradition. Set aside the excellent musicianship – what’s striking is the essence & expressive performances that are emitted through their respective fingers. They succeed in creating music that’s sensitive, flexible & spirited.” - John Apice/Americana Highways

Band Bio

Moonsville Collective has become the string band the members always wanted it to be. Five years after their last release and following a lineup change, the Southern California–bred folk band feels a renewed connection to its roots in old-time music circles, bolstered by the sharpened musical and songwriting skills that come with more experience.

“We had to recalibrate,” says Corey Adams, the band’s co-founder, songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist. Ahead of recording their new album, A Hundred Highways, Moonsville Collective, he says, “went back to writing songs on the acoustic guitar and banjo, and not visualizing such big arrangements,” like those on the series of EPs it released in 2018. “That’s kind of how we started: banjo music and mandolins and fiddles and really classic Americana, country, jug band, blues songs,” Adams continues. “We re-found ourselves by just sitting in a circle and playing music again in a way that felt really organic and natural to us.”

Adams dialed into what he wanted to say as a songwriter, and a refreshed lineup — vocalist, banjo and fiddle player, and songwriter Phillip Glenn; mandolin player and songwriter Matthew McQueen; vocalist, and dobro and guitar player “Dobro Dan” Richardson; and double bassist Seth Richardson, Dan’s son — encouraged growth. When A Hundred Highways arrives on April 12, 2024, via Rock Ridge Music, listeners will “get to know us a little better, even though we’ve been metaphorically partying in your backyard for 10 years,” Adams promises.

Moonsville Collective recorded A Hundred Highways, its fourth full-length album and first since 2015, live at Jazz Cats Studio in Long Beach, California, and produced the record as a band. “When you come see us live, we’re playing on our one little microphone,” Adams explains, and the band members’ choices in the studio mimic their live setup. “We didn’t want to hide behind anything,” he adds. “You can go down the road of hustling to make a record sound bigger than you are for the sake of success, but we’re at the phase of our lives where that’s not the most important thing that we value. We wanted this one to be really authentic and true, to reflect who we really are, what we really do.”

“Helen Highway,” the first single from A Hundred Highways, is about those live experiences, from the band’s perspective: a love song for the Moonsville Collective members who have come and gone throughout the band’s decade of existence, inspired by memories of a cross-country tour in support of 2015’s Heavy Howl. “I always knew these were the best of times, and I never let ’em fly by, no matter how they wanted to,” Adams sings, reflecting on how it felt to be young, less experienced, and on the road with few responsibilities beyond making music. “I know that time can slip away, but only if you let it.”

“I find that, as I write songs, they typically come really fast, but they might marinate for a long time,” Adams says. “So, I think I wrote that song really quickly, but it took me years to have those emotions settle to a place where I knew I was saying all I wanted to say.”

“You Go Your Way” arrived similarly: quickly, but after years of reflecting on a period of decisions that led to loneliness. The song is an example of how the band often let their playing do the talking on A Hundred Highways, with extended instrumental jams punctuating the songs and offering a chance for Adams to pause, breathe, and get comfortable with going a little deeper.

You’ve got to be comfortable to get a song like “A Hundred Songs,” arguably the album’s most spare, honest offering, a song about the constant fight to keep true love alive. “It’s not lovey-dovey; it’s a love song written underneath a cloak of, ‘Ah, f*ck, this is really hard right now’ — which I think is more intimate and more honest,” Adams admits. “There’s more tension in it, which has greater release, we hope.”

The two covers among A Hundred Highways’ 11 songs — the traditional “Red Rocking Chair,” led by Glenn, and “Relax Your Mind,” a Lead Belly song featuring Dan Richardson on vocals — reflect the band’s comfort in a different way. Moonsville Collective has been performing both songs live for years, and the recorded versions are lived-in and loose.

“It was nice to lean into the group, which is what we used to do: have everybody contribute and paint the picture of what we do live,” Adams says. “We spread things around quite a bit, and it continues to be more of a collective than just a singular thing.”

That familial feeling is a key piece of the Moonsville Collective puzzle. Dan and Seth Richardson are the only two members related by blood, but Seth and Adams have known each other since they were teenagers; McQueen has been in the fold for a decade; and Glenn and Adams are neighbors. “The connectedness of the band is really important to us,” Adams says.

“We really try to write music for our community, and for our families and friends,” he continues. “We’re making music for the sake of making music, because it’s what comes out of you, and it should be shared. That’s more of our art form — to just be a part of, and offer something to, the community.”