IN LATE 2020, Caleb Caudle did the thing you’re not supposed to do when you’re focusing on a music career and moved from Nashville back to his North Carolina hometown. The onset of the pandemic had brought his touring operation to a complete standstill, leaving his future as a musician in grave jeopardy. It was a tough decision, but, along with the financial benefit, it made him see things in ways he hadn’t before.

“I felt like I reconnected really strongly. You spend all your days trying to escape [from] there and then you go back,” Caudle says, calling after a brief jaunt to New Mexico for a gig. “For me, I’ve traveled all over the world now and you go back and you realize how special the place you came from was.”

That connection to home and the outdoors is all over Caudle’s new album Forsythia, which was composed both before and after the move. Recorded at the fabled Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and produced by John Carter Cash, the project features musical contributions from Music City luminaries like Jerry Douglas, Elizabeth Cook, Carlene Carter, and Sam Bush, but its contemplative heart rests in the Tar Heel State.

Read More: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/caleb-caudle-new-album-forsythia-1234608065/