Click Image to Download!

On their debut album for Rounder Records, Breakfield prove that a simple name change can radically transform your entire world. After more than a decade of making music as Boy Named Banjo, the Nashville-bred four-piece decided to drop that moniker and rename themselves after a road that runs through Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau: a vast and wild expanse of land where they spent countless hours wandering the woods and getting happily lost during their college years. In a major breakthrough for the band—vocalist/banjo player Barton Davies, guitarist/vocalist/ harmonica player William Reames, bassist Ford Garrard, and drummer Sam McCullough—the renaming quickly ignited a greater sense of freedom and brought a galvanizing new energy to their finespun form of folk-rock. With the arrival of their self-titled LP, Breakfield now reveal the full impact of their metamorphosis, offering up a body of work that’s both a bold leap forward and a glorious return to the joyful abandon of their earliest days.  

Their fourth full-length effort, Breakfield came to life in collaboration with producer Sadler Vaden, longtime lead guitarist for Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit and an increasingly in-demand producer/co-writer whose credits include Amythyst Kiah and Morgan Wade. In a striking departure from their 2023 LP Dusk, the album strays further from the rootsy sensibilities of their formative years and drifts toward alt-country in its lush abundance of jangly riffs and high-powered rhythms—an immense sonic shift that eventually prompted the band’s name change. “We were driving back from Sadler’s studio and talking about how we loved these new songs but how they didn’t really sound like Boy Named Banjo,” Reames recalls. “In a way it’s crazy to change your name after 15 years, but over time the new music told us it was the right move.” “Our old name implies a certain kind of sound, and for a long time we’ve felt pulled in a different direction from that sound,” Davies adds. “Now with our new name, it feels like we’re free to do whatever we want.”  

Recorded at Pentavarit in Nashville and mixed by four-time Grammy winner Matt Ross-Spang (Margo Price, John Prine), Breakfield marks the truest representation yet of the band’s electrifying live performance, harnessing the spirited vitality they’ve shown in taking the stage at leading festivals like Bonnaroo, headlining historic venues like the Grand Ole Opry, and sharing bills with the likes of Hank Williams Jr. and Old Crow Medicine Show. “In some ways we wanted to strip everything back to basics—but given that we’re older and wiser, we were also working with an expanded palette,” says Garrard. Loaded with plenty of moments born from their in-studio improvisation (e.g., instrumental sections that journey into beautifully strange terrain, a truly epic harmonized guitar solo), Breakfield ultimately showcases a band fully in tune with their musical instincts. “From working with Sadler we learned to trust ourselves and commit to our first idea instead of being overly analytical in the studio,” Garrard says. “Our vision of perfect is that there is no perfect.”  

While the new album includes a handful of songs co-written with Vaden, Breakfield also gathered a batch of long-beloved but never-released material, then reimagined each tune through the lens of their newly unbridled musicality and less-is-more approach. One of the most drastically altered tracks on the LP, “Live By Me” arrives as a sweetly rambling love song whose lyrics radiate a warmhearted charm (from the chorus: “Catch my sunshine/Share my fence line/You can use my clothesline/Drink my red wine/Come on in and kill all my time/Take it all for free”). In a profound evolution of the original version, the slow-rolling stunner unfolds with a soulful ease and potent simplicity, instantly setting the tone for all of Breakfield. “The first time we recorded ‘Live By Me’ we really leaned into the whimsical side of the story,” says McCullough, noting that the band initially adorned the track with Latin percussion and Moog synth lines. “This time, we really focused on supporting the lyrics and serving the emotion of the song, which was our main intention for the album overall.” 

Another track that helped crystallize the band’s direction for Breakfield, “Canyon Walls” morphed from a serene folk song to a euphoric and harmony-fueled anthem of reclaimed hope and unexpected salvation. “‘Canyon Walls’ came from finally feeling like we were back to what we’re supposed to be doing as a band, as opposed to feeling tied down by the constructs that the industry sometimes tries to place on you,” Reames explains. One of several songs penned with outside writers, “Canyon Walls” emerged from a session with Meg McRee (Shelby Lynne, Ella Langley) and Ben Chapman (Flatland Cavalry, Brent Cobb), then took on a thrilling new intensity in the studio. “Sadler ended up putting electric guitar on it, and it really got the song going,” says Reames. “Once we went there as a band, we knew where the whole album was headed.” 

Although Breakfield includes gorgeously understated moments like the tender and introspective “Who Am I,” the album sustains an exhilarating momentum on songs like “Angel 41”—a timeless piece of feel-good country-rock inspired by a long-held tradition at Davies and Reames’ alma mater of Sewanee (aka The University Of The South). “When you drive through the gates to the school, you’re supposed to tap the ceiling so you can let your guardian angel go,” says Reames. “The idea is that there’s already angels on campus, so your guardian can take a break.” Meanwhile, on “Darker Out Tonight,” Breakfield deliver a moody but majestic story of romantic deception, capping the track off with a spontaneously captured minute-plus outro. “That’s maybe my favorite moment on the album,” says Davies. “It’s us cutting loose and going into this long extended jam, which is the kind of territory we’ve never really ventured into before.” And on “Travel On,” Breakfield closes out with a bittersweet tribute to a departed friend of Reames’, channeling both deep-rooted sorrow and quiet determination to persevere. “My friend was a huge fan of the band and my hope was to release that song before he passed, but there was a long period of time where we just couldn’t seem to get music out into the world,” Reames says. “When we finally recorded ‘Travel On’ for this album, we wanted to have the feeling of marching along and moving forward—which goes back to the whole theme of making sure the music really compliments the lyrics.” 

The latest addition to an acclaimed catalog that began with their 2012 debut The Tanglewood Sessions, Breakfield endlessly spotlights the kinetic camaraderie the band’s founding members have cultivated since high school. After crossing paths in English class, Davies and Reames began jamming in the parking lot after school and soon started busking on the streets of downtown Nashville—an endeavor that ended up giving the band their former name, after a passerby outside Robert’s Western World addressed Davies with an exuberant cry of “Play that banjo, boy!” With Garrard and McCullough joining the lineup in 2013, Boy Named Banjo turned out a series of critically praised albums and earned a devoted following thanks in part to a freewheeling live show propelled by their powerful chemistry. “Because we’re all so close, we always have a lot of fun onstage,” says Davies. “I think that energy translates to the audience and allows us to put on a show that takes people out of reality for a moment, so that we can all have a good time together.” 

Throughout the lifespan of the band, that palpable sense of communion with their audience has served as an ever-renewing source of joy. “When I talk with fans the most common thing they tell me is that our music fits certain moments particularly well—like, ‘I always listen to this song of yours when I’m by the campfire or I’m out fishing,’” says McCullough. “It’s really cool to know that our music has become part of the soundtrack to people’s lives.” And in the making of their new album, Breakfield experienced a deepened connection with their most essential mission as a band. “It’s easy to feel like your back’s against the wall and you’re fighting for everything, always trying to prove something,” says Reames. “But then you hear stories about people who met at your show and fell in love and played one of your songs at their wedding, and it puts everything into perspective. It always blows my mind that our music can have that kind of impact, and I think there’s a lot of songs on this record that will hopefully end up landing that way.”