For those unaware, Nashville’s psychedelic punk-grass rockers, Sicard Hollow, grew up sick of any existing institution telling them who and what to be.

Now, as they navigate adulthood, they’re equally tired of the music institutions telling them what their music should sound like — so they dunked it in patchouli and a skate-and-destroy ethos that brings an enduring sound into the modern age.

Whether it was skateboarding or chasing jam bands, singer/guitar-player Alex King always had a fierce desire to succeed on his own terms. He spent years as an artist without an art-form, searching for a home by pouring every bit of his sweat and heart into anything he was doing. “It took years for me to land on music,” King says, referencing “This I Know” from the album, “but when I found that fire inside my heart, I found my home.”

It just so happened that finding that home coincided with the shutdown of live music due to the pandemic that canceled the entire release tour supporting their debut studio record, ‘Secret of the Breeze.’ During that time, the band turned inward to reflect on their identity and how they could add their generation’s voice to a timeless genre of music.

The result, with the help of producer John Mailander (Billy Strings, Bruce Hornsby) and Recording/mixing engineer Dan Davis (Billy Strings, Zac Brown Band, Dierks Bentley), was a combination of pop-punk melodies, psychedelic instrumental breaks, and existential song-writing all packaged as a bluegrass quartet dressed in tattoos and tie-dyes; and titled Brightest Of Days.

Tracks like Herrin’s “Escape the Unknown,” wrestle with staying true to yourself in a world seemingly fueled by mob-mentality. This positive skepticism toward the main-stream permeates the entire record. Songs like “Forecast of Life” and “Where I’m At” impress a new-American-Zen that dances through the chaos with a smile on your face.

If unapologetically being yourself is the key to finding the “Brightest of Days” ahead, then you’ll hear it here first from Sicard Hollow.

1. Brightest Of Days
2. Where I’m At
3. This I Know
4. Escape The Unknown
5. Metamorphic Prophecy
6. Face The Wreckage
7. Bound To Die
8. Forecast of Life

This most perfectly manicured and infectiously-harmonious new album opens on the barn dance, twirling joyfulness of the titular Brightest Of Days and backs that up with the gently rambunctious, fiddle-driven Where I’m At, the mid-tempo, banjo-fed bluegrass of This I Know, and then comes the rootsy, trepidational-themed ambiance found within Escape The Unknown.

Up next is one of my own personal favorites from this new recording, the both banjo and fiddle-driven, veritably acoustic rock beauty Metamorphic Prophecy and that is in turn backed by the passionately-imbued, free flowing Face The Wreckage, the album rounding out with the sun-sinking, front porch sing-along Bound To Die, coming to an all too soon close on the upbeat and cheerfully jubilant Forecast of Life.

Sicard Hollow - Escape the Unknown (Official Video)

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