Carolina Story Returns With 'Colors of My Mind' Album

Carolina Story announces the April 7 release of their new album Colors of My Mind via Soundly Music. Along with the announcement, the Nashville-based husband-and-wife duo of Ben and Emily Roberts share an animated music video for their new single "Animal," the album's brooding opening track showcasing an edgier side to the pair's sound.

"This was the first song that we recorded for the album," the duo explains. "It's a song about addiction and the darkness that resides in all of us. The parts of ourselves that we feed the most will dominate us.

We find the album's main character lost and alone, at a fork in the road. Having lost themselves and without any sense of true identity, they seek to satisfy this desire to feel whole and at peace, albeit in all the wrong places. Stuck in a vicious cycle, they are losing the will to keep fighting. This song is ultimately about that final cry for help and the basic human instinct of survival."

Rooted in the lush and moody brand of Americana they first honed by traveling across the country on DIY tours in early 2010s, Colors of My Mind took shape from a period of tremendous pain and metamorphosis. After parting ways with their former label, Carolina Story headed into the studio to sate their creative impulses, but quickly found themselves with an entire album's worth of material.

The resulting collection of songs contains essential truths about transformation, surrender, and the inevitability of impermanence - altogether forming a narrative of transcendence that soon had a life-altering impact on the band itself. Rather than getting lost in the darkness, Colors of My Mind is a spellbinding journey of metamorphosis as the main character transforms from the opening track onward, finding hope and purpose by the album's end.

"For years I'd been struggling with alcohol and drugs, mostly in silence, but four days after we finished this record I went into rehab-which wasn't planned at all," says Ben. "At the time I hadn't really understood where all these songs about change were coming from, but the catharsis of recording them wound up saving my life."

Emily adds, "Even though Ben was having a hard time admitting he needed help, he was definitely communicating that in the music. In a way the songs were almost prophetic, considering how much they changed our lives after the fact."

Over the last decade, Carolina Story has built a passionate grassroots following by touring all over the country before making their Grand Ole Opry debut in 2014. The pair has released two celebrated albums, their 2018 debut Lay Your Head Down followed by 2020's Dandelion, garnering acclaim from press including NPR Music, Billboard, Rolling Stone, American Songwriter and more.

The pair infuses their raw, honest storytelling with a lush instrumental blend of folk intimacy, country grit and alt-rock muscle, prompting NPR's World Café to declare, "The music they make - a sophisticated take on '60s and '70s southern rock - has the ability to stop time."

Colors of My Mind finds Carolina Story once again teaming up with five-time Grammy Award-nominated producer/songwriter/musician Paul Moak (John Paul White, Caitlyn Smith, Madi Diaz). Recorded at Moak's Nashville studio Smoakstack, the album features members of their longtime live band (guitarist/pedal-steel player Sam Wilson, bassist Randle Scruggs, drummer Nathan Sexton), with Moak also lending his talents on guitar and piano.

Watch the new music video here:

Photo Credit: Jeremy Cowart

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