Stream: Wymond Miles, ‘Summer Rains’

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Wymond Miles (photo by James Holden)

Wymond Miles released his latest album, “Call By Night,” on July 8 through Sacred Bones Records. Following 2013’s “Cut Yourself Free,” the Fresh & Onlys guitarist continues his dark exploration of the American West through tunes that seek that ounce of sunshine in the dry melancholy of human experience. Such a moment inspired the album’s opening track, “Summer Rains.” Miles was driving back to California after a Fresh & Onlys tour with a friend, and they picked up two European travelers making their way across the U.S. Growing up between Colorado and Nevada, and many years of touring had numbed the desert drive for Miles, but experiencing it with these people, who were doing it for the first time, gave him a new perspective. During a rainstorm in Nevada, the car passed over a ridge and the sunset broke through the clouds in a dramatic way. “We all kind of gasped and laughed at its beauty,” he says, and they felt alive and invigorated. While he was driving home back to real life and responsibility, he had a car-full of dreamers bursting with hope and anticipation of their destination. It’s interesting what a storm and a burst of sunshine can mean, depending on perspective. Miles says the new album is all about his “more definitive commitment to seek, listen, and give voice to an enduring muse.”

||| Stream: “Summer Rains”

||| Live: Wymond Miles performs tonight at HM157