Willi Carlisle - "Gas Station"

The upcoming album from Willi Carlisle is highly anticipated, and his latest single only has us more excited for it. Co-written by the album's producer Tyler Childers, "Gas Station" is an upbeat track about life on the road and eating meals at a gas station. This is a prime example of Carlisle's unique classic meets modern Americana sound, with roots in the past but still sounding completely contemporary. This one is pure fun, and it's going to happily embed itself in your skull, and possibly your soul. Carlisle has such an engaging quality with his music, and "Gas Station" could end up going down as one of his finest.

Willi Carlisle says of his latest single:

"Coming into the recording session, this song felt like a strong draft, like something left in the fridge to proof or set like a dough. I liked it though: my whole life summarized. All this work, hauling, beating up the highway, singing for hours, just to eat dinner at the gas station. It was late in our two weeks of recording before we got to this song, and I kept wondering if we would cut it. 

"But Tyler came into the studio, wild-eyed, guitar in hand, no shoes, a little haggard. He had an idea, and took my kinda simple blues progression and changed the feel. It became a lot more direct, less tongue-in-cheek. More honest. We stood, started singing, changing words here and there, agreeing and disagreeing. We cut a take with the drummer. We sat in a circle with pen, paper, instruments. Tyler suggested, 'goodle days' instead of 'good old days.' Kenny kept nodding, fixing mistakes. We kept shaping verses, agreeing that my choruses were working. Suddenly I realized, this was a cowrite! But the red light was already on, the tape rolling. We were writing and recording at the same time. Wild as hell. In the long run, it felt like we should both be singing it, so we doubled up on the choruses.

"Tyler’s joke at the top captures some of the energy we had there— getting in a 'knife fight at apple day' might be the spirit of this whole record. It’s a record that should sound like getting drunk at the civil war re-enactment, cruising for tail at the cattle auction, dropping acid at the square dance."

You can watch the video for "Gas Station" below. The Universal Bubba is due out November 6 on Signature Sounds, and is available for pre-order here. For more on Willi Carlisle, check out the artist's website. Upcoming tour dates are below the video and includes November 3 at Crystal Ballroom in Somerville, MA and November 4 at The Iron Horse in Northampton, MA.

OCT 1 - Toronto, ON Canada - Longboat Hall
OCT 2 - Buffalo, NY - Mohawk Place
OCT 3 - Lakewood, OH - Mahall’s
OCT 4 - Charleston, WV - Mountain Stage
OCT 6 - Lexington, KY - The Burl
OCT 7 - Nashville, TN - The Basement East
OCT 8 - St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway
OCT 9 - Cape Girardeau, MO - Scout Hall
OCT 10 - Kansas City, MO - Knuckleheads
OCT 28 - Indianapolis, IN - Turntable
OCT 29 - Columbus, OH - Skully’s Music Diner
NOV 1 - Ardmore, PA - Ardmore Music Hall
NOV 2 - Brooklyn, NY - Baby’s All Right
NOV 3 - Somerville, MA - Crystal Ballroom
NOV 4 - Northampton, MA - Iron Horse
NOV 6 - Portland, ME - First Parish Church
NOV 7 - Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
NOV 8 - Kingston, NY - Assembly
NOV 10 - Pittsburgh, PA - Thunderbird
NOV 12 - Washington, DC - Union Stage
NOV 13 - Durham, NC - Stanczyks
NOV 14 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl
DEC 3 - Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater
DEC 5 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
DEC 6 - Boise, ID - Shrine Social
DEC 9 - Vancouver, BC Canada - The Pearl
DEC 10 - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
DEC 11 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
DEC 12 - Trout Lake, WA - Trout Lake Hall
DEC 14 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent
DEC 15 - Felton, CA - Felton Music Hall
DEC 17 - Los Angeles, CA - Sid The Cat Auditorium
DEC 18 - San Diego, CA - Soda Bar
DEC 19 - Pioneertown, CA - Pappy + Harriet’s
DEC 20 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar