It's a roughly 36-hour drive from Michael Lawson's original hometown of Seattle to the legendary Muscle Shoals recording studio - FAME Studios - in Alabama. But the roots musician was inspired by a body of water about a three-mile drive further east: the Tennessee River. The result is an infectious new single entitled "Not Alone" from his new studio album Tennessee River Shakedown was released on June 14.

"The goal was to write a collection of songs that captured the history and spirit of the music of the Tennessee River," Lawson says of the album, produced by Jimbo Hart (Jason Isbell). Lawson worked with what he called "the Dream Makers," a group of Muscle Shoals session musicians and Hart that Lawson used to perfectly capture a sound that's simultaneously current and timeless.

"Playing with session guys of that caliber gave me a new way to think about songwriting," Lawson says. "Since those guys could play everything, it meant that I could write anything. And because we all mesh so well as a band in the studio, the songs always seem to work."