RAYLAND BAXTER

NEW SINGLE ‘BOLLY PLATEAU’ OUT NOW

WATCH OFFICIAL VIDEO 

New Album ‘True Violet’ Co-Produced by Paul Butler and Nick Waterhouse Out 23 October Via ATO Records 

Rayland Baxter‘s new single ‘Bolly Plateau‘ returns to the Tennessee hills where it was written, grounding the emotional journey of his new album in the physical place that made it possible. Released today alongside a music video filmed on location at the Bolly Plateau, the song is the third track to be released from his forthcoming album True Violet, out 23 October via ATO Records

“I refer to the hilltop on which I live as Bolly Plateau, my little cabin at the near end of a dead end street,” says Baxter. “It’s quiet up here. I wave to my neighbors and keep to myself, just like everyone else. And I go through the emotions mostly alone up here. Looking out to the street, I reminisce and I feel everything on Bolly Plateau. I sure am grateful to have this place. I write here and I dream here and I take it all in the best way I know how. Lately the reminiscing I’ve been doing is mostly focused on the last 5 years of my life and my transformation.”

Co-produced by Nick Waterhouse and Paul Butler, True Violet captures the slow, steady metamorphosis of becoming someone new. “Bolly Plateau” follows Baxter’s recent singles “The Fool” and album opener “Better Man,” which was co-written with and features background vocals from Tyler Ballgame. 

Baxter spent the years surrounding his 2022 album If I Were A Butterfly touring heavily while navigating difficult relationships, personal loss, and the death of his father, Bucky Baxter. A multi-instrumentalist best known for his work with Bob Dylan and as a member of Steve Earle and The Dukes, Baxter’s father had shaped every previous chapter of his career. After returning to his quiet Tennessee hometown, Baxter found himself with the stillness to confront the patterns and emotions he had spent years outrunning. Turning to his sister for advice, he found the encouragement to dig deeper in his writing.   

From 70 songs penned over a years-long period of solitude, True Violet slowly unfolded as a sweeping, tender, and sometimes raucous ode to reckoning and reconciliation. Though the writing process was solitary, the production became a story of friendship, family, and collaboration. Recording the album was punctuated by moments of doubt—scrapping songs, returning to the drawing board, and calling in friends. Fittingly, Baxter left the sequencing of True Violet to his friend Shakey Graves (Alejandro Rose-Garcia). 

These days, Baxter has a steadier hand on the sails of his life, and you can hear it in his voice as he sings about living inside a feeling for too long and the hard-won relief of finally moving beyond it. True Violet is about what remains after the storm passes: the lessons, the scars, the gratitude, and the possibility of beginning again. The medicine of this album lies in the contrast between the hardship that inspired it and the clarity, patience, and community that finally brought it into focus. 

‘True Violet’ tracklisting

1) Better Man

2) Up and Down a Mountain

3) Bad Love

4) Haymaker

5) What a Day My Friend

6) The Fool

7) Bolly Plateau

8) Real Bad Rut

9) Dreamin About

10) Never Do

11) Oh My Love

WATCH ‘BETTER MAN’ VIDEO HERE

WATCH ‘THE FOOL’ VIDEO HERE

PRE-ORDER ‘TRUE VIOLET’