Article Contributed by Gratefulweb
Published on 2026-07-22
Progressive bluegrass band AJ Lee & Blue Summit have shared the second single from their forthcoming album, Cover To Cover, due September 11 via Signature Sounds.
Fans can now stream or purchase the new single, “Soak Up the Sun.” Cover To Cover is also available for vinyl and CD pre-order.
The band is currently in the midst of an extensive U.S. tour that will continue through the album’s release. AJ Lee recently served as the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival’s Artist-in-Residence, an honor previously shared with Jerry Douglas and Billy Strings.
The buoyant interpretation of “Soak Up the Sun” recasts the Sheryl Crow radio hit as a soaring, feel-good string band tune built around an infectious mandolin hook and lush vocal stacks.
Lee writes, “This has been a longtime favorite among listeners since the early 2000s, so it’s about time there was a bluegrass version! Sheryl Crow has been a big inspiration to me vocally and stylistically and in how she leads as a woman in the music industry. It’s almost impossible not to sing along when that chorus comes around.”
A virtuosic four-piece that has taken the progressive bluegrass world by storm, AJ Lee & Blue Summit live for the stage, spending well over 100 nights a year on the road and putting on the kind of rapturous, ecstatic performances that have made them critical and festival favorites alike.
For all the acclaim they have garnered over the course of their first three albums, however, there is an element of the group’s captivating live show that has rarely made it into the studio.
“Our records have pretty much all been original material up to this point,” says Lee, who performs on mandolin and vocals, “but our set lists have always had a lot of covers in them. Country, folk, bluegrass, swing, gypsy jazz—we love taking all sorts of songs and putting our stamp on them.”
Cover To Cover, the band’s fourth album, collects 11 of their favorites into a showcase of not only the band’s musicianship, but also its ambition and imagination as arrangers and interpreters.
Recorded with longtime friend and engineer Jonathan Kirchner and featuring appearances from Jerry Douglas, Lindsay Lou, Trey Hensley and more, the album reinvents tunes by artists including Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Emmylou Harris, offering fresh perspectives on songs from across a broad range of genres and eras.
The songs are delivered with joy and reverence, with several drawn from the band’s earliest days playing bars and cafés around Santa Cruz. The arrangements are dynamic and spacious, with plenty of room for dazzling solos and lush harmonies.
Together, the album serves as a love letter from AJ Lee & Blue Summit to the songs that shaped them, a journey through the last century of American roots music delivered by some of the brightest young torchbearers of their generation.
“The band can seamlessly weave from bluegrass to country to western swing to folk-rock, with the powerhouse vocals of Lee as the core,” wrote Rolling Stone.
WMOT added, “Lee’s voice is a rare thing—luminous and velvety and perfectly in tune... Then there’s the Blue Summit band... lord they can play... This band is rolling like a locomotive.”
Cover To Cover Track Listing:
1. “Fishin’ in the Dark” — Jim Photoglo and Wendy Waldman
2. “Wish I Could Say” — Bryan Simpson and Ashley Gorley
3. “Matterhorn” — Mel Tillis and Fred Burch
4. “Red Dirt Girl” — Emmylou Harris
5. “Soak Up the Sun” — Sheryl Crow
6. “Meet Me in the Morning” — Bob Dylan
7. “Tear My Stillhouse Down” — Gillian Welch
8. “Drivin’ Nails in My Coffin” — Jerry Irby
9. “Who Walks In” — Al Goodhart, Al Hoffman and Ralph Freed
10. “Takes One to Know One” — Harlan Howard and Freddie Hart
11. “Glendale Train” — John Dawson
AJ Lee & Blue Summit 2026 Tour Dates:
July 22 – FloydFest – Check, VA
July 24 – Bijou Theatre – Knoxville, TN
August 2 – Salmonfest Alaska 2026 – Ninilchik, AK
August 8 – Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival 2026 – Alta, WY
September 23 – Falcon Bowl – Milwaukee, WI
September 24 – Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL
October 9 – Lobero Theatre – Santa Barbara, CA
October 10 – Casbah – San Diego, CA
October 21 – Cat’s Cradle – Carrboro, NC
October 22 – The Ramkat & Gas Hill Drinking Room – Winston-Salem, NC
October 23 – The Grey Eagle – Asheville, NC
October 24 – Neighborhood Theatre – Charlotte, NC
November 12 – The Southern Cafe and Music Hall – Charlottesville, VA
November 13 – Pearl Street Warehouse – Washington, DC
November 14 – The Sultan Room – Brooklyn, NY
November 15 – 118 North – Wayne, PA
November 17 – 3S Artspace – Portsmouth, NH
November 18 – One Longfellow Square – Portland, ME
November 19 – The Sinclair – Cambridge, MA
November 20 – The Iron Horse – Northampton, MA
November 21 – Levon Helm Studios – Woodstock, NY
November 22 – Infinity Music Hall – Norfolk, CT
