Photo credit: Kirk Robert

Songwriter’s latest features friends including Wyatt Durrette (Luke Combs, Zac Brown Band), Stephen Fiore (Young Mister), Tim Nielsen (Drivin N Cryin).

Americana Highways brings you a sneak preview song premiere of Mark Bryan’s vocal and acoustic guitar version of the 1998 Hootie & The Blowfish song “Wishing,” originally heard on the band’s Musical Chairs album. The new version of the song closes Bryan’s upcoming fourth solo album, Midlife Priceless, out April 2nd, 2021, and preceded by a string of singles.
 
 “The original track was written as an upbeat rock song,” Bryan says, “I came up with this acoustic version for singer/songwriter shows, and decided to record it for Midlife Priceless.’”
 
[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/MarkBryan-WishingAcoustic

Midlife Priceless is the title of Hootie & The Blowfish guitarist Mark Bryan’s fourth solo album.
 
It’s also how he rolls.
 
Three years since the release of Bryan’s previous record, a lot has happened: His 20 million-selling, two-time Grammy®-winning band got back together for a sold-out arena tour that meant as much to Bryan as it did to the fans that came out by the tens of thousands.
 
“Wanna Feel Something” is the new album’s first single for a reason.
 
Tonight we ride again
Just like we did back when
We were best friends, and it would never end
 
It’s right there.

Mark Bryan is about feeling something and making you feel something. The energy in the buildings around the country that rocked again with the songs that made Hootie one of the biggest-selling acts in music history, is all here on Midlife Priceless.
 
When Bryan gets to the guitar solo on “Wanna Feel Something,” it’s a done deal.
 
The album’s title draws a deep parallel, metaphorically, with a lyric from another of the record’s standout tunes, “Takin’ A Ride,” a duet with Wyatt Durrette, writer of the #1 single “Beautiful Crazy” by Luke Combs and author of many of the Zac Brown Band’s hits.
 
“Die young as late as you can”
 
It’s a beautiful statement. It’s a mission statement.

“That line speaks to the point I am in my life and why I’m still making music,” Bryan says.
 
Even before Hootie got back together to be met with love-filled venues as if it were the 1990’s again, Bryan was living this way. Through good and bad – especially bad – he was connecting with his youth, wonder, curiosity, and joy.
 
As defined, “priceless” is something so precious that its value cannot be determined.
 
A record album has to provide value though, right?
 
One of the reasons that Bryan chose to lead up to the release of Midlife Priceless with a long string of singles is because so many moods and styles are represented. He thought to give ‘em a chance to shine on their own, in a different way than they do as a collection.

This might not be an auspicious plan for some artists, but Bryan’s track record dictates that he knows his way around a single, and this approach is another example of how Bryan is living midlife priceless.
 
Midlife Priceless, the fourth solo album by Hootie & The Blowfish guitarist Mark Bryan arrives on April 2, 2021.