Steve Poltz Takes New Album For A ‘JoyRide’

Steve Poltz readied his 14th album, JoyRide, for release on January 30 through Red House Records. The singer-songwriter provided a sample of the forthcoming LP with the first single, “If It Bleeds It Leads.”

Poltz recorded JoyRide at the well-established home studio in East Nashville, 3Sirens. The follow-up to 2022’s Stardust And Satellites was produced, engineered, and mixed by multi-instrumentalist Dex Green.

“Capturing me in a studio is like convincing a whirling dervish to stop spinning long enough to sign a bill into law,” Poltz explained. “It’s chaos, caffeine, and accidental poetry — art colliding with microphones and commerce in a glorious mess. That’s how JoyRide happened. No seatbelts, no helmets. Just unsaturated, unadulterated art. Real humans making real noise in real time.”

Among the 10 songs on JoyRide are co-writes with Jim Lauderdale and Skip Black, “Fixin’ Up,” and with Leftover Salmon’s Vince Herman, “Love A Little Bigger.”

“‘If It Bleeds, It Leads’ was so much fun to record because it was challenging — and I love a good challenge,” Poltz said of the lead single. “I used Emmylou Harris’s rhythm section: Bryan Owings on drums and Christopher Donohue on bass. Dex Green played this weird-sounding keyboard that added to the whole vibe, along with my acoustic guitar. I wrote the song after watching the news with some people who were yelling at the TV screen. I had to leave the room and immediately write this song.”

Stream “If It Bleeds It Leads” below:

JoyRide Tracklist

1. If It Bleeds It Leads
2. Petrichor
3. At It Again
4. JoyRide
5. The Son of God
6. Love A Little Bigger
7. Fixin’ Up
8. New Tattoo
9. Brand New Liver
10. Hairlift