One major perk to being a country superstar? The freedom to work with your childhood idols, like the recent collaboration between Sugarland’s Kristian Bush and beloved 80s power pop band The dB’s, who this week released their first new album in 30 years, Falling Off the Sky.
Bush co-wrote “She Won’t Drive in the Rain Anymore” with dB’s frontman Peter Holsapple. The song is also Bush’s first musical release through Songs of the Architect, his recently created publishing company based out of Atlanta.
For Bush, a co-writing credit on the new dB’s album bears deeper meaning. “I studied [Holsapple’s] albums over and over,” he said in an announcement issued for the album’s June 12 release. “In a lot of ways, those songs taught me how to write a pop song that never gave up and never gave in.”
Of the collaboration process, Bush added, “I [was] trying not to freak out because the voice singing on the sofa across from me as we were tossing melodies and lyrics back and forth was a voice I had known since I was 14. I am convinced that the 14-year-old me locked away some dB’s melody and served it back to the man who gave it to me in the first place.”
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Holsapple expressed a mutual gratitude for having the opportunity to work with Bush. “I’m incredibly grateful to call Kristian a friend, and I’m glad we got the chance to pull this song out of the hat,” he said.
Even though some 35 years have passed since the dB’s released their first album, reviews for Falling Off the Sky have praised the band for staying true to the original sound that established the foursome as a critics’ and musician’s darling.
“There is an entire generation that needs to hear this new album,” said Bush, “and who knows, they may even start a band … like I did.”
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