Kevin Morby releases ‘Die Young,’ the second single/video from his eighth studio album, Little Wide Open, out May 15th via Dead Oceans. Following the “big hearted” (WNYC) lead single, ‘Javelin,’ ‘Die Young’ is a mid-tempo track with a backdrop of violins from Mat Davidson (Big Thief, Adrianne Lenker). Across the song’s verses, Morby recalls past recklessness and expresses gratitude: “Crashed the ranger in a ditch, Louisiana Texas state line // Thank god that we didn’t die young // Caleb blew the windshield driving outta Boone one summer afternoon // Thank god that we didn’t die young.” The accompanying video for ‘Die Young’ was directed by Zak Gorsuch, Chantal Anderson, and Morby and depicts Morby wandering through sunflower fields.
“A lot of this album is me reflecting on my time spent on the road as an adult,” explains Morby. “Being a touring musician as a career has made for a sometimes complicated lifestyle and in so many ways has proven to be pretty dangerous. I started doing this professionally when I was 19 and sometimes I can’t believe that 20 years later I’m still here. This song acts as a love letter not only to the road and all of my travel companions over the past two decades, but also to Katie, who I met playing shows when we were very young. Sometimes it’s amazing to zoom out and remember where we began compared to where we’re at today – both as romantic partners and songwriters.”
Kevin Morby – ‘Die Young’ (Official Video)
“Little Wide Open is set to a backdrop of tangled highways, towns with populations less than 100,000, roadside crosses, a rock and roll romance, coupling butterflies, being an American entertainer, Econoline vans and more,” explains Morby. “This is, without a doubt, the most personal and vulnerable album I’ve ever made. Aaron did a heroic job of holding me back from throwing too many tricks at the songs, and letting my stories stand a bit naked. Despite its title this album is in fact, very wide open.”
In the summer of 2024, Aaron Dessner had asked Morby to support The National at their London show in Crystal Palace Park. Shortly after, Dessner—who was on a hot streak, having produced albums for Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and Gracie Abrams—reached out to Morby to say he’d love to produce his next album. They began recording at Aaron’s Long Pond Studio in Stuyvesant, NY, early in 2025 and finished in September of that year.
The album, which includes a host of contributors such as Dessner—who plays multiple instruments across it— Meath, Justin Vernon, Katie Gavin, Lucinda Williams, Davidson, Meg Duffy, Oliver Hill, Rachel Baiman, Stuart Bogie, Tim Carr, Andrew Barr, Benjamin Lanz, Colin Croom and Tom Moth, has been described by Morby as the third in an unintentional trilogy of releases, following 2020’s Sundowner and 2022’s This Is a Photograph, which catalogued his time in middle America after moving back to Kansas City. This time out, Dessner’s production elevates Morby’s recordings while never losing focus of the songs themselves. There’s a newfound confidence and clarity in both Morby’s writing and Dessner’s production that recalls Tom Petty’s 1994 classic Wildflowers. Now primarily living in LA, the atmosphere that runs through Little Wide Open has changed somewhat from its predecessors. The feeling of restlessly hurtling towards something new. A future unseen and untested, but inevitable.
Kevin’s friend, critically acclaimed novelist Rachel Kushner, has written an astonishing essay about Little Wide Open, entitled “Field Guide to the North American Troubadour.” Rather than mangle or chop up the work for the purposes of fitting something so artistically written into the format of a press release, please read her full essay below.
Read Rachel Kushner’s “Field Guide to the North American Troubadour”
Praise for Kevin Morby
“The arrangement is all charming affability and unhurried brightness…yet the lyrics keep bending toward eclipse imagery…turning what could’ve been a simple road song into something closer to a secular hymn about sticking around.” — Paste on ‘Javelin’
“An enormously charming acoustic springtime rock ‘n’ roll ramble.” — Stereogum on ‘Javelin’
Kevin Morby – Javelin (Official Video)
Kevin Morby
Little Wide Open
Tracklist
- Badlands
- Die Young
- Javelin
- All Sinners
- Natural Disaster
- 100,000
- Little Wide Open
- Cowtown
- Bible Belt
- I Ride Passenger
- Junebug
- Dandelion
- Field Guide for the Butterflies
Kevin Morby Online
