Virginia Coalition started building a buzz in their hometown of Alexandria, Virginia in the late '90s, releasing their first album, The Colors of the Sound, in 1998. By 2003 the band had three independent albums in their pocket and maintained an intense touring schedule, selling some 60,000 albums independently, mostly from the edge of the stage. bluhammock music inked the band and released OK to Go in 2004. Last year's Live at The 9:30 Club finally captured the band's live intensity and set in motion the musical soul searching that produced Home This Year.

The band's core members - Andy Poliakoff (lead vocals, guitar), Paul Ottinger (keyboards, percussion, guitar, vocals) and Jarrett Nicolay (bass, guitar, banjo, and vocals) have always delighted fans with their ability to confound expectations. Taking the music back to their songwriting roots on Home This Year has imbued Virginia Coalition with a new sense of purpose. The band has blended their diverse influences and passions into a sound all of their own, while for the first time collaborating with other songwriters. Some of the collaborators include Brooklyn folk-rocker Ari Hest, New Orleans-based bluesman Anders Osborne, Maia Sharp who wrote "A Home" for the Dixie Chicks, and the album's Producer, Marshall Altman (Marc Broussard, Matt Nathanson) and David Ryan Harris. Musicians who have contributed include Eric Robinson on guitar and Dave Immergluck of the Counting Crows on Mandolin and Aaron Sterling on drums. Poliakoff says, "We wanted to look outside ourselves and find something more reflective, more truthful, more universal, to open a new chapter in the band's history."

Home This Year's title track is a tale of the loneliness and yearning that haunts the road. "Being on the road away from your family and friends for a long period can be tangibly painful," sites Poliakoff. '"Home This Year' embodies that sentiment and how singing about it can help make you feel closer to home." "Sing Along," the band's first single is rife with warm melodies interlaced with lyrics that cry out for hope and speak to our understanding that the world is bigger than any of us, and that sometimes you need to just let go. "Not Scared," penned with Hest, is the most political track on the album, although its message of love across racial lines is subtle, beautiful and nuanced. Long-time Virginia Coalition fans may be surprised by the group's evolution from 'spontaneous anything goes' band to introspective, soul-searching songwriters, but it's a change the band welcomes and a change that the fans are sure to welcome once they've had a listen to this stunning new album.