Cory Wong Announces ‘The Optimist’ Album & Shares Single

Longtime Vulfpeck collaborator Cory Wong will release his sophomore solo album The Optimist on August 17. Wong shared “Jax,” the album’s funky lead single, via a video recorded in the studio.

The guitarist faced a life or death situation when he was just 16-years-old. Wong was diagnosed with a blood clot that had the potential to kill him if it reached his brain. Thankfully Cory made it through the situation and came through with a positive world view that he still keeps through the present. “‘No way I’m having a blood clot,’” the guitarist recalled about the situation in a press release announcing the LP. “I’d worked way too hard to get my license and hang out with my friends that summer and nothing was going to get me down. I decided that if the worst might happen, all I could do was spend my remaining days doing what made me happy and spreading as much joy as I could in the world.” So it’s no surprise he titled his album The Optimist.

Wong recorded the follow-up to his 2017 self-titled debut at a series of spontaneous sessions with a variety of collaborators. The Minneapolis native recruited members of Prince’s band, drummer Michael Bland and bassist Sonny Thompson, as the rhythm section for the first session. Other contributors include members of Ben Rector’s Band, fellow Vulfpeck collaborator Antwaun Stanley,The Hornheads, Robbie Wulfsohn of Ripe and British singer KATIS. “The Hornheads are best known as Prince’s horn section,” explained Wong, “and their leader, Michael Nelson, did most of the horn arrangements for Prince. The guys are all 20-30 years older than us, but we fit right in as friends because they love seeing young musicians with such passion. Michael told me that after Prince died, it was really fun for him to find a new artist to work with on stuff like this, and it’s been a great community-building thing. We even have a musicians’ racquetball club together now.”

Cory Wong followed in the footsteps of Vulfpeck by filming each of his sessions including those held remotely. Watch the official video for The Optimist lead single “Jax”:

The Optimist is currently available for pre-order here.