The Lil Smokies Announce New Album ‘Tornillo’ & Early-2020 Tour Dates

The Lil Smokies will release their third studio album, Tornillo, on January 24, 2020. The Montana-based bluegrass outfit has announced tour dates around the album as well.

The 2020 dates kick off in Seattle on January 23. After swinging through Vancouver, the band will head down the coast including shows in Portland and Los Angeles. The tour then strikes east beginning with a three-night run in Colorado with shows in Durango and a concert in Crested Butte. The first leg of the tour closes out in Salt Lake City on February 15.

The tour resumes in Philadelphia on March 5 followed by shows in Brooklyn, Washington D.C., Boston, and Burlington. After a show in Jay, Vermont on March 14, the band will head back west for an appearance at WinterWonderGrass Tahoe. The Lil Smokies will then make a short run through the Midwest in April including dates in Madison, Wisconsin and St. Paul. The tour will wrap up in Nashville on April 16.

Lil Smokies are touring around Tornillo. The band recorded the LP at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas, with producer-engineer Bill Reynolds (The Avett Brothers, Band of Horses, Midland). “Our time there encapsulates all of the good things about being in a band and making music,” vocalist and dobro player Andy Dunnigan said in a press release. “The word ‘tornillo’ in its literal definition means a screw or a bolt. That’s exactly what this experience in the studio did for us as a band. We really came together and worked as a unit, and we got back to those reasons why we do this.”

While the band — consisting of Dunnigan, banjo player Matt Cornette, bassist Scott Parker, guitarist Matt “Rev” Rieger and fiddler Jake Simpson — stuck to their bluegrass bread and butter on Tornillo, the album also saw them experimenting with sonic soundscapes by using synth pads and even tracked with a guitar owned by the legendary Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Head here to preorder Tornillo.