The acoustic version of Randall King’s celebrated sophomore album is out today.
Widely regarded as one of the best country albums of 2024, Texas troubadour Randall King is now taking the songs from his critically acclaimed Into The Neon and giving them a makeover, acoustic style.
Out February 21, Neon (Unplugged) features all 18 of the original album’s tracks — from the vulnerable “I Don’t Whiskey Anymore” to the romantic “Burns Like Her” and “I Could Be That Rain” — in a format that more closely resembles demos than his projects of high-end production that preceded it.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Yve Assad
“This project was so exciting to do,” King tells C&I. “I wanted to take these tunes, strip them down and really show off the songs themselves. What better way to do that than with just an acoustic guitar, my vocal, and my favorite instrument, the dobro?”
The shift marks the second such move in as many albums for King, who added what he describes as a little “smoke” on Into The Neon, his sophomore album with Warner Music Nashville. The result is one that hits on all cylinders and gives all types of country fans something to love — stripped back songs for the country and songwriting purists and bells and whistles for a larger, mainstream audience. But it hasn’t come without contention.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Evan De Stefano
“We had a little controversy with [Into The Neon] in the sense of me taking my sound to a different level and putting a little edge on it,” King says. “It’s not quite as traditional as my previous records, but I still wanted to show that it is country music — there’s nothing pop or rock about it.”
King went on to say that the change isn’t due to his move to Nashville — where he’s lived since 2021 — but rather due to a desire to try something different.
“I haven’t been influenced by Nashville, there was just a different side of my sound that I wanted to reach,” explains King. “I’m a big fan of Dierks Bentley and Gary Allan, so I tried to get that Smoke Rings In The Dark feel on my self-titled record when I produced it. I fell back toward my roots on that one, leading to it feeling more like 90’s country than anything else. I really wanted this new record to have a similar feel.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: Evan De Stefano
As for his move to Nashville, the move wasn’t music related as much as it was personal and wanting to be closer to his partner, Brittany Warthan.
“I was already coming up to Nashville two, sometimes three, weeks out of every month,” King says. “It got to that point that I decided if I wanted to be fully immersed in the relationship, start a family and have a life with her that I had to be here because she’s not going to move to Texas. And musically, there’s got to be a time when you’re in it to win it. If you want to play the big boy game, you got to be here to win the big boy prizes.”
Perhaps the grandest big boy prize of all is fatherhood, which King and Warthan jointly revealed last month with their first duet together, “Baby Steps.” Although the song isn’t on any of King’s recordings (it’s currently a single released under Warthan’s name), he says it’s already one of his favorites as he gleefully anticipates becoming a father for the first time.
“I’ve always wanted to be a father,” King says. “It’s been hard through the years sacrificing so much to get your career started. I figured when I hit my 30’s I’d already be a father, but now at 34 I’m finally getting ready to have my first one. I’m super pumped and know I’ll be great at it. It’s something I’ve longed for and something I’ve had to set aside to reach my goals, but now that I’m at a good place in my career it feels like God’s timing more than my own.”
As for the future, King has no intentions of letting a child slow down the momentum he’s steadily been building with his music. The singer already has plans to return to the studio in March to begin work on his next full-length project. He also teased a second volume of Honky Tonk BS — an EP released in 2022 containing leftovers that didn’t make the cut for his album Shot Glass — following it along with a third version of the aforementioned “I Don’t Whiskey Anymore” with massive, full band production that could drop anytime.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Evan De Stefano
“I really think this next record needs to stand out on its own and be what it needs to be with the best songs, whether I’ve written them or they’re outside cuts,” foreshadows King. “Then after that I plan to do a Honky Tonk BS Volume II EP featuring only my songs. I’m excited to get cooking on all of it.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: (Cover image) courtesy Evan De Stefano
