Noel McKay Releases 'The 50 Loneliest Places in the Nation', Announces New Album

Noel McKay has released the lead single from his new album, entitled "The 50 Loneliest Places in the Nation". The album, which he revealed is called "Blue, Blue, Blue" will be out October 8.

The song was inspired by a dream McKay had and then promptly recorded into a voice memo - in the dream he was scrolling through the internet and stumbled upon a clickbait article with the same focus, and before he knew it, Roger Miller was singing the dream-chorus.

"Music has its own separate means of communication that transcends language," he continues. "It's capable of wordlessly evoking emotions, experiences, and cultural references in ways that, for all my trying, I've never completely understood. I suppose that by learning a bunch of music theory, I was looking for some kind of science behind why a particular combination of notes can evoke such deep feelings. When you couple music with a good story, something very powerful can emerge. Trying to lash both of those things together in a believable way has been my life's work so far."

Blue, Blue, Blue, is more straightforward and light than McKay's past collections, centering around longing: whether it's longing the experiences of a lost relationship, longing to undo unwise decisions, longing for the way one's home city was, longing to travel, longing to have one's story told. It's taken close to a decade for the record to come to fruition, which he started back when The McKay Brothers stopped playing together regularly.

McKay was discovered back in 1993 by legendary songwriter Guy Clark along with his brother, Hollin, with their duo The McKay Brothers; three decades later, his ability to write the kinds of smart, insightful and sometimes slyly humorous songs that initially caught Clark's attention remains the cornerstone of the music he makes today.

Watch the music video for the new single below.

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