Futurebirds have spent nearly two decades in flight, building their audience show by show, forever rediscovering themselves in a swirl of rock & roll and cosmic Americana. For Carter King, Thomas Johnson, and Daniel Womack — the band's three frontmen, with voices distinct enough to anchor their own songs and unified enough to sound like one band — being in Futurebirds has often meant being gone. They've traveled America's highways and backroads. They've seen its dive bar stages and amphitheater bleachers. With Far Out Country, though, they stop focusing on the horizon ahead of them and boldly live in the present. They’re no longer rushing toward the next destination. Far Out Country IS the destination. A two-volume collection of 18 songs, Far Out Country casts the widest net of the band's career. Amplified anthems like "Sleepless in the Cage" — a loud, lovely tangle of electric guitar and harmonized voices — rub shoulders with the gentle acoustics of "Sienna Life." Rootsy rockers like "Sober Somewhere" give way to the atmospheric quiet of "All I Want." There are songs for daytime road trips and songs for nighttime campfires. Songs for sun-streaked landscapes of rolling green hills and songs for darkening skies of blue-black clouds. For a band that once drew praise from USA Today for "mixing Neil & Crazy Horse with My Morning Jacket," Futurebirds have never sounded so singular, making music that nods to their country-rock heroes while proudly avoiding classification altogether. As Johnson explains, "the longer we play together, the less our music sounds like it belongs to a genre, and the more it just sounds like Futurebirds." With Far Out Country, it's not just about the music. It's about conversation. Since forming the band as students at the University of Georgia, Futurebirds have grown up together, making the transition from hometown heroes to national headliners.
