Vision: Chris Shiflett, West Coast Town

Foo Fighters‘ lead guitarist Chris Shiflett is back with his first solo material since his Dead Peasants‘ sophomore album release All Hat And No Cattle in 2013.

Following the release of his first two Country-oriented albums, West Coast Town sees the 45-year-old Californian back in the saddle, losing the Dead Peasants moniker.

West Coast Town is the title track and first single off Shiflett’s forthcoming country album to be released 14^th April on SideOneDummy Records.

Directed by Brian Durkin, the video features several famous Santa Barbara, California haunts including Jedlicka’s Saddlery, Jensen’s Guitar & Music Co. and Leadbetter Beach. Providing a stunning visual of the Santa Barbra native’s old stomping ground, where surf meets country heart.

The album is a product of a creative partnership working with Grammy Award-winning Dave Cobb and Grammy Award-winning engineer/mixer Matt Ross-Spang, Chris recorded his latest album at RCA Studio A in the home of Country music – Nashville, Tennessee – over a three-week period, during the Summer of 2016. With every song captured in just two or three takes.

Already receiving acclaim, Rolling Stone asserts, “…flawlessly blends blue-collar country punk with a catchy Bakersfield bounce. Borrowing the rowdy swagger of Prison Bound-era Social Distortion and the SoCal sheen of Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam, Shiflett crafts a sound that is both geographically grounded and wholly his own.”

In the meantime, Shiflett was seen boarding a plane at LAX suspected to be bound for London with his Foo Fighters bandmates following a series of cryptic messages and a shift of the band’s website to an airport departure board.

Is a Glastonbury Festival announcement imminent or might one of the biggest bands in the world pop up at a UK dive bar near you for a surprise show?

Shiflett will take West Coast Town on the road with a 12-date US tour next month, winding up at Nashville’s The High Watt on 9th April.

Foo Fighters are queuing up huge summer festival appearances one at a time including Poland’s Open’er Festival, Denmark’s Roskilde, Spain’s Mad Cool Festival and Lollapalooza, Berlin.

Photos of Chris Shiflett by Kalpesh Patel

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