Canada/US Folk and Bluegrass Collective Sourwood Experiment with Perspective and Precision in Electrifying New Single

Following their debut release “On the Road,” progressive bluegrass collective Sourwood returns with “Wrong Carolina,” a rhythmically complex and narratively playful second single that blurs the lines between heartbreak and highway maps. The track explores the chaos of mistaken direction—both geographically and emotionally—fueled by one of the band’s most memorable musical arrangements to date.

“It started with this story [that bandmate Liam Lewis] told me,” says frontman Lucas Last, recalling a tour mix-up where Liam’s band mistakenly arrived at a South Carolina venue—only to find out they were booked at a bar of the same name in North Carolina. “He was also going through a rough patch with someone named Caroline, so I just mashed those together: wrong place, wrong time, wrong person.”

The song’s namesake, “Wrong Carolina,” plays with the ambiguity of place and person, letting the title line hit with layered meaning. “We wanted the lyric to feel deliberately unclear—‘I was in the wrong, Carolina’ vs. ‘I was literally in the wrong Carolina,’” Lucas explains. “It’s simple, but the ambiguity is where the real emotional weight is.”

Listen to “Wrong Carolina” HERE.

Thematically, the song confronts the moments when confidence turns to confusion—when being sure of something doesn’t make it right. Musically, it’s a standout within Sourwood’s catalogue: pulsing with tension, intricate in rhythm, and laced with the dynamic push-and-pull that has already become a band signature.

The track’s distinctive sound is built around interlocking instrumental patterns, with rhythmic motifs repeating across guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and upright bass. “It almost feels like a prog-rock section passed through a bluegrass filter,” says Lucas. “The way everything locks together creates this feeling of momentum, like a train barreling toward a switch that no one’s pulled yet.”

Despite being the most technically challenging song on the record, it came together surprisingly quickly during a live-off-the-floor session at Halo Recording Studio. “We were intimidated by it—lots of stops and starts, and a very specific arrangement—but we got it in about three takes,” Lucas recalls. “It felt like magic.”

Produced by Roman Marcone and engineered by Danny Smart, the song also showcases Sourwood’s willingness to push sonic boundaries. From phasers on banjo to ambient textures more common in indie rock than bluegrass, the track embraces experimentation. “When I came back to hear the mix, Danny had added all these weird effects. Roman looked nervous, like maybe he’d gone too far,” Lucas laughs. “But I loved it. It was the first time I’d ever heard a banjo run through a phaser and just said, ‘Let’s go with that.’”

With “Wrong Carolina,” Sourwood continues to stake out new territory at the intersection of folk, bluegrass, and indie, pairing genre-defying instrumentation with storytelling that feels both intimate and mythic.

Based in Waterloo, Ontario (or Chicago or Los Angeles, depending on who you ask) Sourwood’s music sits somewhere between Molly Tuttle, Fleet Foxes, and Jason Isbell. Grounded in Bluegrass and Celtic traditions, the band also draws heavily from classical and jazz, and never shies away from the confessional lyricism of late 90s indie bands like Pedro the Lion, Elliott Smith, and Death Cab for Cutie.

This foundation informs Lucas Last's narrative and biographical lyrics decorated by evocative imagery and unflinching honesty. While Last provides the initial song structures, the arrangements are highly collaborative, shaped in no small part by the instrumental voices of Liam Lewis and Olivia Breidenthal. The result is a fresh sound that balances highly arranged musical interplay with the improvisation you’d expect from a modern progressive bluegrass band.

The core group – Last (Vocals, Guitar), Lewis (Mandolin), Breidenthal (Fiddle), and Patrick Dinnen (Upright Bass) – first came together just two days before hitting the studio. An initial, casual project between songwriter Last and mandolinist Lewis in Los Angeles was derailed by lockdowns in 2020.

After moving to Canada, Lucas decided to revive the project in 2024 with the simple goal of recording the catalogue of songs before moving on to other things. The band took shape during an intense six-day recording session at Halo Recording Studio in Hamilton, Ontario.

This session united Lucas, Liam, and brought in new collaborators fiddler Breidenthal (Los Angeles), and bassist Dinnen (Chicago). Local Ontario banjo player Larry Johnston also contributed to the recording. What started as a passion project among near-strangers quickly sparked excitement as the music revealed a potential beyond a simple one-off session.