Listen to Econoline

The Freedom To Fail marks an exploration into new territory for 20-year Austin veteran Guy Forsyth. Rather than focus his efforts solely on making an album that embodied the energy surrounding he and his band’s dynamic live performances, Forsyth instead opted to create a work that doubled as a message to his young daughter.

"These songs represent an articulation of the changes in my viewpoints and the new legality that I see," Forsyth explains of the album, his first release for Blue Corn Music. "I became a father in this period of time and started looking around me and trying to figure out what it is that I had to say to my daughter to explain myself. I don't feel the need to explain myself to everyone, but I sure as hell feel the need to explain myself to my daughter. I want her to have that sort of connection with her origins."

Produced by Matt Smith and recorded at the Lost Oasis Studio in Austin, Texas, The Freedom to Fail finds Forsyth handling a wide array of stringed instruments both contemporary and traditional, including the banjo, mandolin, baritone guitar, and harp guitar – a 12-stringed instrument made popular at the turn of the 20th century.

Forsyth's diverse play gets a boost in the form of support players like local icon Jon Dee Graham, fellow Asylum Street Spankers alum John Doyle and multi-instrumentalist Sick, trumpeter Oliver Steck, and stalwart (and newly married) rhythm section of drummer Nina Singh-Botta and bassist Jeff Botta.