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Thirty years ago, Edie Brickell and New Bohemians exploded out of Dallas and became an international sensation with their double-platinum debut album, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, featuring the Top Ten hit, “What I Am.” Now, the group returns with Rocket, their first new music in a dozen years—and as the title indicates, they remain a propulsive and unclassifiable force, a whirlwind of musical ideas and styles. Though Brickell, of course, continued to create new music throughout the years—as a solo artist, with the Gaddabouts, and in collaboration with Steve Martin (with whom she co-wrote the 2016 Broadway musical Bright Star)—she never lost touch with her first band. Every few years, she would reconnect with some combination of guitarist Kenny Withrow, drummer Brandon Aly, bass player Brad Houser, and percussionist John Bush and they would improvise new songs, just like they always did. But beyond the occasional show, the New Bohemians remained a private affair. In 2017, the band reunited for three sold-out shows as a benefit for La Rondalla, an arts school where Withrow teaches. At the rehearsals, it became clear that something special was starting to happen. “It’s actually hard for us to rehearse because we just start improvising,” says Withrow. “So we did what we normally do, and ended up writing a few songs. We decided to record a batch of them—we maybe started with three, but we recorded seven songs in eight days. We ended up with a body of songs and kind of fell in love with it.” Withrow points to a couple of the songs on Rocket as examples of the band’s spontaneous process. The dreamy “Obvious” was captured on the second take, solos and all. One of the final songs they cut, the shimmering and propulsive “Superhero,” was written and recorded in one day. “Musically, that one took us to another level. It’s mature in terms of its arrangement, but it came straight down." - Kenny Withrow (Guitarist) "I feel like I don’t have anything to prove at this point, which is a good feeling—with one exception, which is to show how great this band is. I’ve never known a band who can do what they do.” - Edie Brickell (Vocalist)