As the Red Clay Strays packed up to leave the sessions for their 2024 sophomore album, Made by These Moments, they were confident in what they’d just created. Still, they worried: Would a last-minute mishap mean they’d never get invited back to eminent producer Dave Cobb’s studio?
“We had just made our first record with him, and we were leaving, and [guitarist] Drew [Nix] spilled Coke all over [Cobb’s] freshly painted stairs,” recalls the band’s charismatic frontman, Brandon Coleman. “We were like, ‘You ruined it!’ ”
He needn’t have been concerned: Made by These Moments became the band’s full-length breakthrough, and The Red Clay Strays would soon return to Cobb’s Savannah, Ga., studio to record much of their new album, Grateful, out June 5 — and it would likely take more than just some spilled soda to slow the Alabama group’s momentum. After breaking out on TikTok with the 2022 single “Wondering Why,” the soulful country-rock ensemble has become one of the fastest-rising acts in the country world, with second-line billing at this year’s Stagecoach Festival and its first arena tour on tap. An impressive ascent — especially for a band that doesn’t even necessarily see itself as “country.”
