Following their debut release "On the Road," progressive bluegrass collective Sourwood returns with "Wrong Carolina," a rhythmically complex and narratively playful second single that blurs the lines between heartbreak and highway maps. The track explores the chaos of mistaken direction – both geographically and emotionally – fueled by one of the band's most memorable musical arrangements to date.
Listen on YouTube here:
"It started with this story [that bandmate Liam Lewis] told me," says frontman Lucas Last, recalling a tour mix-up where Liam's band mistakenly arrived at a South Carolina venue – only to find out they were booked at a bar of the same name in North Carolina. "He was also going through a rough patch with someone named Caroline, so I just mashed those together: wrong place, wrong time, wrong person."
The song's namesake, "Wrong Carolina," plays with the ambiguity of place and person, letting the title line hit with layered meaning. “We wanted the lyric to feel deliberately unclear – 'I was in the wrong, Carolina' vs. 'I was literally in the wrong Carolina,'" Lucas explains. "It's simple, but the ambiguity is where the real emotional weight is."
Listen on Spotify here: open.spotify.com/track/2rsA64S8MxRYmPZ6ot2PpY
Produced by Roman Marcone and engineered by Danny Smart, the song also showcases Sourwood's willingness to push sonic boundaries. From phasers on banjo to ambient textures more common in indie rock than bluegrass, the track embraces experimentation. "When I came back to hear the mix, Danny had added all these weird effects. Roman looked nervous, like maybe he'd gone too far," Lucas laughs. "But I loved it. It was the first time I'd ever heard a banjo run through a phaser and just said, 'Let's go with that.'"
