But when they took those songs on the road, they busted right through all of those parameters, pushing their music in new directions and coalescing into a tougher, tighter live act. That album laid out the parameters of their sound, winning accolades from multiple outlets and earning comparisons to Gram Parsons, The Byrds, and The Grateful Dead. The success of their 2021 debut, Introducing…The Pink Stones, took them far away from home and kept them out on tour for long stretches. And you always have to stay on your toes.” Everyone is friends with everyone else, and everyone’s doing something constantly, so you’re always hearing something new.

“We get to do our own thing, and there are a million other really good bands doing their own things here as well. “We have the space to be free here in Athens and do whatever we want,” says Pinkston. Yet The Pink Stones sound like no other Athens band. Together, they have the range to be whatever they need to be at any given moment, embracing the spirit of musical freedom that has animated the local music scene for more than forty years. Made up almost entirely of Athens musicians who play in other bands around town (including former members of Drive-By Truckers and Glands), The Pink Stones match their frontman’s vast musical vocabulary while adding their own twists to spacey honkytonk, pedal-to-the-metal trucker anthems, and ecstatic gospel. I really wanted to get all of those things living peacefully together in one record.” “There’s obviously a lot of country and rock in our music, but there’s a lot of gospel and soul and psych and dub. Ostensibly they play country music, yet all the pedal steel sobs, the two-steppin’ rhythms, twangy harmonies, and lyrics about broken hearts and long days on the road are launchpads for wild experiments and unexpected stylistic forays. T HE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This record was me trying to take everything I love as a listener and a player and shove it all into one thing without it sounding random,” says Hunter Pinkston, former punk-turned-cosmic country auteur, describing You Know Who, the boisterous, ambitious sophomore album by his band The Pink Stones.

Wild hearts can't be broken lyrics