Winston-Salem, N.C.
A Growing-Up Record

Caleb Caudle has already left town and returned. The North Carolina singer-songwriter came home to Winston-Salem after living in New Orleans for a stretch. In the interim, he sobered up, got married, made an excellent country record—2016’s Carolina Ghost—and turned 30. But Caudle, who has spent much of 2017 working on his next record, Crushed Coins, wasn’t interested in revisiting musical terrain that he’d already covered. The album, which was recorded in Los Angeles, will be Caleb’s fourth full-length. The record is, according to Caudle, a more atmospheric affair—introspective and mature, but mellow. “This one feels a lot less country to me,” says Caudle of the forthcoming record. “It’s a little bit dreamier.” This time around, Caudle says, he was soaking up the sounds of The Beach Boys, The Beatles, classic rock albums and a lot of jazz. For the last record, he was into Merle Haggard, Randy Travis and John Anderson and, if pedal steel and organ added defining flourishes to his last release, then Caudle says a string quartet, Mellotron and melodica were the instrumental touches that were called for this time around. “There’s two things going on in this record—it’s a more realistic view of relationships and love,” says Caudle. “And there’s another side of this album that deals with loss. This is kind of a growing-up record. It’s really dealing with life. There’s a few heartbreakers on the new record where I try not to get too happy.” He laughs before adding, “I wouldn’t want to put more than three songs about death on an album. I don’t want it to be something people can only put on when they’re bummed out.”