Press kit, Rayland Baxter · Press kit, official use
Rayland Baxter has spent much of his career chasing clarity, but his newest record, True Violet, feels like the first time he's truly found it. His 2022 album If I Were A Butterfly evoked transformation, but in Baxter's own view, True Violet is the record where the true metamorphosis has unfolded. Catalyzed less by a sudden realization than by hard-earned understanding, True Violet is a record about the slow, steady process of becoming someone new. It's about looking in the mirror, taking responsibility for your own life, and sitting with difficult emotions instead of trying to outrun them. Baxter spent the years around the release of If I Were A Butterfly, a record shaped by solitude and the loss of his father, touring heavily and weathering difficult relationships and dynamics in his personal life. He had built an enviable career—releasing acclaimed records and touring alongside Jason Isbell, The Lumineers, Kacey Musgraves, and Lauryn Hill—but upon his return to his quiet Tennessee hometown, he turned inward and finally found the stillness to confront old patterns. After more than a decade as a working musician, Baxter was familiar with the rhythms of making records, but when it came time to begin again, he found himself unsure of where to start.
