Sadler Vaden Releases Surprise Album Dad Rock via Thirty Tigers

Features Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers), Elliot Easton (The Cars), Julian Dorio (The Whigs, Eagles of Death Metal)

June 14, 2024 — Just in time for Father's Day, Sadler Vaden (of Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit) has released a surprise solo album called Dad Rock via Thirty Tigers, available everywhere you stream music today and for pre-order on vinyl at Vaden's webstore. The 8-song set of classic rock jams and ballads recorded after Vaden became a father features an impressive cast of esteemed rock musicians who are also dads like Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers), Elliot Easton (The Cars), Julian Dorio (The Whigs, Eagles of Death Metal), Art Edmaiston (JJ Grey & Mofro), and more. The album includes new songs Vaden wrote specifically for his two sons, like "Townsend's Theme" and "I'll Always Come Back," the latter of which was inspired by what he tells them every time he leaves for tour; and older tracks Vaden has long wanted to share with the world, like "Two Balloons," a tribute to his late parents that matches the tattoo on his left arm.

Dad Rock follows 2020's Anybody Out There?, a "Rock and Roll Masterpiece" (No Depression) that "Mixes Oasis With Tom Petty” (Rolling Stone) and "positively drips with Vaden's sparky riffs and melodious solos" (Guitar World). Of his solo return, Vaden offers, "It's been four years since my last album, and my wife and I have had two beautiful boys since then, which has really shifted my perspective in life and in how I write songs. These are mostly new songs but some older unreleased songs that I have a totally new connection with after becoming a father...I feel like we are experiencing a new era of Dad where you see many men really stepping up to the plate and being there for their kids and their wife more, cooking more, doing more duties around the house. It's actually cool to be a good dad these days and I hope that's a trend that continues."
 
Since his last release, Vaden has continued touring and recording with Isbell while further establishing himself behind the board as well, producing Morgan Wade's last two records, Reckless and Psychopath (serving as a co-writer on both), among others. On how he found time to work on his solo material, Vaden offers, "I was technically only in the studio for two days, two sessions in December just days before my second son Theo was born. Everything else was done remotely or at my home studio when I could carve out an hour here and there. I really knew what I wanted things to sound like on this record so it was important to me to not let things get overcooked by laboring over parts and sounds too much. And also, we play close to 100 shows a year, so there’s really no time for that anyways...We mixed the record remotely with Owen Lewis using Audiomovers, which is software that you can put on the stereo output of your DAW and send someone a link so they can listen to a mix or recording session in real time. I’d be listening to the link in my AirPods while he’s mixing and I’d be changing dirty diapers or making bottles or chasing my toddler around getting ready for bedtime. Dad Rock indeed."