Justin Wells to have an album release show for second solo record at The Burl

Justin Wells doesn’t view himself as a “voluminous” songwriter with stockpiles of unused tunes to raid when it comes time make a new record. In fact, one of the few completed compositions he had worked out when he convened in the Lexington studios of producer Duane Lundy was actually intended for use on another project down the road.

Titled “The Screaming Song,” the composition was a country-infused statement of arrival, a relaxed and confident rumination that sat in contrast to any sense of alarm suggested by the title.

“When I got together with Duane, I didn’t have stacks of songs to pull from,” Wells said, “But there were a few with no real common thread between them. One was “The Screaming Song.” Duane was very interested in that one and said, ‘We need to work on that.’ I said, ‘Man, that’s part of a thing that is far from written.’ In typical Duane fashion, he said, ‘Well, write it.’

“I think that’s why we get along so well. There’s not a lot of the stereotypical industry beating-around-the-bush or flatteries.”

So Wells set out to write. The former frontman for the Lexington rooted, Southern-leaning rock/country troupe Fifth on the Floor had spent much of the past four years establishing himself as a solo artist, touring heavily behind the release of his debut album “Dawn in the Distance.” That record, also cut with Lundy, widened his musical and narrative scope as a writer. But the compositional process this time would differ. The resulting songs that became Wells’ new “The United State” album furthered the country sentiments inherent in his music and in his singing, but also enforced a storytelling quality more in line with worldlier rock and folk music.

“I hate to admit this because it’s going to sound like I can do it all the time, but I wrote these songs in the space of a couple of months,” said Wells, who will have a album release show Friday at The Burl. “It’s just kind of when it rains, it pours, in a good way for me.

“I had all these little notes. How very modern I am, I have my little note app. This where I put scraps. I’m not good at keeping pieces of paper like I used to. So when it was time to write, I had all these little scraps in here. I had a title. I had a theme. I had a ‘Here’s what the kick drum ought to be doing’ note. There was a framework.”

An arc of sorts emerged to the record with the songs reflecting a life cycle running through birth, youth, love, family and death. Wells, however, hesitates to view “The United State” as an album with a guiding concept.

“I kind of shy away from those kinds of words. To me, this is no different from any other record that has a running connection. I’ve never been interested in, ‘Here’s the 10 or 12 songs I have. Let’s bundle that and make an album.’ I think if you’re going to make an album in 2020, in the land of singles, there should be a reason for the songs to appear as a family. But it helped to have that framework to work within.”

Three sets of recording sessions from as many cities set the foundation for “The United State.” Brothers Daxx and Miles Nielsen, of Cheap Trick and Miles Nielsen and the Rusted Hearts, respectively (both are sons of Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen) recorded rhythm section tracks in Rockford, IL. Former Lexingtonian and Lundy co-hort Justin Craig sent guitar and percussion overdubs from New York City. Vocals and guitar parts were cut by Wells and Lundy in the latter’s Lexington Recording Company studio.

“In terms of how all that fit together, it was somewhat maddening,” Wells said. “It certainly made scheduling insane. But Duane knows how to wrangle people. That’s one of his talents. You point artists with a skill on an instrument in a direction and they’re going to execute, so we had a lot of direction walking into the thing.”

The core eight songs making up “The United State” work off the sense of awakening offered by “The Screaming Song.” “No Time for a Broken Heart” reflects a good-hearted coming-of-age sensibility, “Never Better” toughens the record with a kind of Western noir guitar melee that quickly coalesces into a storm “(“I flew up the mountain just to fall down its side”) and a slow country affirmation titled “The Bridge” concludes the journey with a solitary stroll into the distance,

Bookending the songs to open and conclude the album are two brief soundscapes – a slice of ambient guitar atmospherics with fellow Lexington song stylist J. Tom Hnatow and a snippet of wordless vocalizing that brings to mind Bob Dylan’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.”

Also of note is “Walls Come Down,” one of four songs from the album Wells set to music videos. Shot entirely on an iPhone 11, the clip has Wells playing in front of music venues he has frequented through the years in Indianapolis, Nashville, Huntington, Asheville and Charlotte along with shots here at home at The Burl. The twist is all the clubs sit quiet in a non-touring world triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Musicians aren’t the only ones hurting from what has happened. I’m not really looking forward to playing in people’s back yards or art houses, so we need to try and keep these venues open.

“The video was just us trying to figure out how to be creative in the midst of all this, so we did a kind of a mini tour. It felt like a tour, only without an audience. Which is kind of what like my early tours were like.”

Justin Wells

Album release show, with Abby Hamilton

When: 7 p.m. Oct. 16, gates open at 6 p.m.

Where: The Burl, 375 Thompson Rd.

Tickets: $90 for a table of six for the outdoor performance; buy online at theburlky.com/shows