Rolling Stone Country premieres Ron Pope’s video for “Can’t Stay Here” as part of their July “10 New Country Artists You Need To Know” feature.  The track is taken from the Nashville-based independent artist’s forthcoming album Work, due August 18 on his own Brooklyn Basement Records. Pope begins an international tour on September 28 with a pair of dates at New York’s Irving Plaza.

The site says Pope “Sounds Like: Earnest, melodic story songs written and sung by a guy who knows his way around an electric guitar” and is “For Fans of  “Tom Petty’s hooks, Little Feat’s grooves, the rock and soul wing of Americana.”

The album follows last year’s critically acclaimed Ron Pope & The Nighthawks, of which Entertainment Weekly raved, “Heavier, deeper, bigger, louder. The warm glow of the West, and a heavy meditation on classic sounds of the South seeps out.”

Work is Pope’s seventh studio album. To date, he has surpassed one million monthly listeners on Spotify, sold out shows in more than 20 countries, sold over 2 million digital tracks, had over 200 million streams on Spotify, 630 million plays on Pandora and 150 million views on YouTube. Pope’s music has been featured on NBC’s “The Voice,” CW’s “Vampire Diaries,” “90210,” and multiple seasons of FOX’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” which sent two of his albums into the top 100 on iTunes simultaneously. Pope also guest starred as himself in season three of the show “Nashville.”

The album was recorded completely in analog at Welcome to 1979 in Nashville, where Pope and his fellow musicians locked themselves in the studio for one week until the album was complete. Work was co-produced and recorded with Grammy award-winning engineer Ted Young, his third consecutive collaboration with Pope. The lead single “Bad For Your Health” was co-written by Pope and Jonathan Tyler.

Of the new recording, Pope says, “This album follows me from when I was thirteen and a teacher told my mother that I’d probably end up in prison; I started messing around writing songs that year. It’s been mostly uphill ever since.”

Appearing on the new album are Jay Collins on sax (Gregg Allman Band), Mike Riddleberger on drums (Bleachers), Andrew Pertes on bass (Savoir Adore), Kai Welch on keys/accordion (Abigail Washburn, Glen Campbell), Jeff Malinowski on guitar (Frances Cone), Alex Brumel on guitar/pedal steel and Charles Ray on flugelhorn/trumpet. The record also features guest vocals on select tracks from Mary Richardson (The Banditos), Katie Schecter, Molly Parden and Vanessa McGowan.

Earlier this year Pope performed “Baby, I Love You” at Carnegie Hall as part of The Music of Aretha Franklin tribute show. He also recorded a cover of the song and an accompanying instudio video in celebration of Franklin’s 75th birthday. Glide proclaims, “Taking on Aretha is a daunting task, but with Pope’s vivacious voice and the top notch players behind him, this rendition is blessed with [it’s own] unique wow factor while retaining its original luster.”

RON POPE LIVE IN THE UK

November 5 – London, UK – The Garage 

November 6 – Manchester, UK – Academy 3