**MARK BRYAN | MIDLIFE PRICELESS | STONE POINT RECORDS | OUT NOW**

Bio:

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.

In addition to “Wanna Feel Something,” the upcoming “A Little More Rock n Roll” is that song you’ll learn and sing along with immediately. It’s a nostalgic tune that must be looking with eyes in the back of its head because, like the entire vibe of Midlife Priceless, it’s so damn optimistic and full of hope.

“Let Your Soul Light Shine” takes a longer path to that place.

“It was like my identity, everything I knew over the past 20 years as ‘Mark Bryan,’ was stripped away from me,” he says about how the song reflects on a time in his life where his marriage was breaking apart and Hootie was on indefinite hiatus.

Even with difficulties in his home and career, Bryan’s enormous love for his children permeated his songwriting.

“The music was written separate from the melody, and when I put the two together, her name just fit perfectly,” he explains of the album cut “Madelynn Claire,” saying, “it almost feels like I’m calling out to my daughter, like a lullaby.”

“Growing Wild” might be more about Bryan’s other kids, Marlee and Kenny, who are both making their own forays into music.

Climb across the forest baby

Make your way across the land

Free fall off the canvas maybe

Only hold on where you can

I see you growing wild

Bryan’s strength through this period of his life, the love of his kids, and his songwriting, got him to the resolve that the title “Let Your Soul Light Shine” indicates. It’s like a mantra.

The follow-up single “Explain That To A Heart,” another song written with Durrette, and Phillip Lammonds, takes that resolve and peppers it with reflection:

My heart won’t let go of you

I try and try to tell it to

You can tell the rest of me why we fell apart

But how do you explain that...

How do you explain that to a heart?

Bryan wanted “Gotta Get Outta Town,” the opening cut on Midlife Priceless, to be the last single to arrive before the album’s release, specifically because he felt it should come out in the spring.

Clearly!

The song has dirt flying out from under the wheels of a convertible from note one. Interestingly, though, the origin of the tune isn’t as simple as just jamming your foot on the gas.

“It was inspired by a young artist here in Charleston named Sarah Cole,” Bryan explains. “I invited her to come and jam and write music one day, but she called me that morning and was so bummed because she had to work. Not even an hour later, she called back and said, ‘I can’t be here, I need to be there writing music. I just told my boss I had to leave.’”

Bryan continues, “She was so passionate, it fired me up! In my mind, I could just see her speeding out of the parking lot to get here. And in the time it took her to get to my house, I had written ‘Gotta Get Outta Town.’”

This story is another example of how Bryan is living midlife priceless. So in his moment and finding those same precious moments with others.

Wanting to make you feel something.

As another lyric from “Wanna Feel Something” states:

Wanna make you feel something

A little better than usual

Don’t you wanna feel something

Honest and beautiful

Yeah, man, we do.

Midlife Priceless, the fourth solo album by Hootie & The Blowfish guitarist Mark Bryan arrives on April 2, 2021 preceded by the singles “Wanna Feel Something” (Oct. 30), “A Little More Rock n Roll” (Nov. 20), “Let Your Soul Light Shine” (Jan. 8), “Explain That To A Heart” (Feb. 12), and “Gotta Get Outta Town” (March 12).