There’s nothing quite as freewheeling and fun as calling up a few buddies to get together and play music, creating a bond, and, if the stars align, walking away with a song or two. Now imagine if the friends were tenured professional touring musicians who’ve just never quite had the chance to all be in the same room at the same time. That’s exactly how the newly formed, feel-good Americana collective, The High Hawks, came to be. The High Hawks—Vince Herman (Leftover Salmon), Tim Carbone (Railroad Earth), Chad Staehly (Hard Working Americans), Adam Greuel (Horseshoes & Hand Grenades), Brian Adams (DeadPhish Orchestra), and Will Trask (Great American Taxi)—have maintained a generation-spanning presence at the forefront of the roots music scene for over two decades, and are now flying together under the banner of good, old fashioned fun and friendship. Their debut album The High Hawks was released today via LoHi Records. Watch the brand new video for “Fly High” here and purchase The High Hawks in digital form, on CD, or on a limited 180g blue vinyl record at the LoHi Records store.

The baker's dozen of songs that make up The High Hawks have the strong identity and cohesiveness of a band three records into their career. The summery, fiddle-infused opener “Singing a Mountain Song,” with its self-referential line—Soaring like a high hawk across this mountain top—acts as a kind of mission statement for the whole collection. There's a lot of good feeling and optimism in these grooves, from the celestial cowboy vibe of “White Rider” and the revved-up Cash rockabilly of “Bad Bad Man” to the catchy, sauntering “Do Si Do,” which sounds like a great lost Grateful Dead track, the spare emotional cover of Woody Guthrie's “Fly High,” and “Just Another Stone,” a moving ode to love's redemptive power. Throughout, the creative hand-offs between four songwriters and four distinct singers all come together to channel influences from bluegrass to folk to reggae to cosmic Americana into a singular, appealing voice. “These songs wouldn't sound like High Hawks songs if it was just one of us playing them,” Greuel says. “When it all comes together, there's a sound.”

Following a run of shows in June—and as touring, in general, is starting to wind back up—The High Hawks have been excited to get these new, feel-good songs out in front of a live audience. “There's a lot of stuff on this record that's soulful and soul-nourishing,” says Carbone. “That's what I get out of it. So I hope that people who listen will get something similar—a replenishment and a nurturing of the soul.” And that’s something that, after all these years of making music and touring the world, all of the band members are grateful for—as the outro of “Heroes & Highways” exclaims, they “Still got a soul!”

Rocky Mountain fans can catch The High Hawks on the final date of their June tour schedule. They’ll be performing in Vail, Colorado, at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater on June 22nd.

The High Hawks Tracklist:

Singing A Mountain Song

Talk About That

Heroes & Highways

Just Another Stone

When The Dust Settles Down

White Rider

Fly High

Bad Bad Man

Do Si Do

Home Is

Blue Earth

Trying To Get By

Goodnight Irene