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Stream Water Liars’ ’50s-Saluting ‘Ray Charles Dream’

water liars, ray charles dream

Water Liars will soon return with their self-titled third album. On February 4, the Mississippi-based trio — singer-guitarist Justin Kinkel-Schuster, drummer-vocalist Andrew Bryant, and bassist GR Robinson — will release the 11-track follow-up to last year’s Wyoming through Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum. The country-punks have already shared one cut from the fast-approaching full-length (“I Want Blood”), and now they’ve unveiled another: the malt shop-wrecking “Ray Charles Dream.”

“‘Ray Charles Dream’ is exactly what it’s named,” Kinkel-Schuster says. “I had a dream one night that I was walking in the dark and came up on Ray Charles, sitting alone in this dark, singing these words. When I woke up it was still dark in the room and it took me a minute to find my pen and paper, but I got it down and fell back to sleep, but I had lost the dream. When I woke up the next morning I felt pretty strongly that I needed to use what I’d written down in the night, and I knew I wanted it to be a short, to-the-point rock and roll song. Those are the inexplicable things I wait for as a writer.”

Stream “Ray Charles Dream” below, scroll further down for Water Liars’ tour dates, and pre-order the Water Liars LP through iTunes or Fat Possum.

Water Liars tour dates: 

February 14 – Oxford, MS @ Proud Larry’s
February 15 – Jackson, MS @ Martin’s
February 18 – Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl
February 19 – Athens, GA @ Normaltown Hall
February 20 – Charleston, SC @ The Royal American
February 21 – Raleigh, NC @ King’s Barcade
February 22 – Asheville, NC @ Mothlight
February 24 – Washington, D.C. @ DC9
February 25 – Philadelphia, PA @ Milkboy
February 26 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
February 27 – New Haven, CT @ Cafe Nine
February 28 – Portsmouth, NH @ Book and Bar
March 1 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade (in-store)
March 2 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe
March 3 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern
March 4 – Athens, OH @ The Union
March 5 – Forty Wayne, IN @ The Brass Rail
March 6 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas
March 7 – Indianapolis, IN @ DO317 Lounge
March 8 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
March 10 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement