Dylan LeBlanc is paying homage to the artists who inspired his unique sound with the upcoming Pastimes EP, due out June 18, a self-produced collection of six covers that LeBlanc says inspired him musically and spiritually.

Pastimes was recorded at Fame Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, live and with as few takes as possible in order to capture a sense of authenticity. Says LeBlanc, “I feel like music is nothing more than a spiritual endeavor to widen the horizons and heighten the senses of the things inside of everyone that sometimes feel unreachable.”

The release is will also be available on orange vinyl, shipping in early November which you can pre-order here.

Today LeBlanc also shares his cover of Glen Campbell’s “Gentle on My Mind,” the country legend’s 1967 four-time Grammy-winning hit.

“I come from a heavy country music background,” says LeBlanc. “My father made his living as a writer for the Nashville Machine growing up. My grandfather in the early 70’s in his early thirties was convinced to make payments on a Gibson guitar on consignment at the local music store along with a song book with the scales and chords and hit songs of the era inside with directions on how to play them. He loved this song and it was heavily played around the house and passed and sang at gatherings and parties where everyone was drinking and laughing and feeling no pain as they say. I love the story of this song about a drifter roaming from place untethered to anyone or anything therefore making the moment of missing his muse more pure. I can relate as I have naturally always wanted to roam from place to place and be free. I love this song so much and it holds a nostalgic and wonderful place in my heart.”

Okkervil River’s Will Sheff will return to the stage this fall on a co-headlining U.S. tour with Damien Jurado. The tour, which kicks off on September 21 with two dates at Evanston, IL’s SPACE and wraps December 11 at Bellingham, WA’s Wild Buffalo, includes shows in Nashville, Brooklyn, Big Sur, and two nights at Portland’s Mississippi Studios. All dates are below and tickets are on pre-sale now and will be on sale to the public on Friday HERE.

Alongside the tour announcement, Okkervil River releases a new song “In A Light,” the band’s first new music since its acclaimed 2018 LP In the Rainbow Rain. A second new track, “It Hasn’t Happened Yet,” will be released this Friday, May 14.

“I wrote ‘In a Light’ with our guitarist Will Graefe right before I moved out of Brooklyn,” says Sheff. “We recorded it in one take at Figure 8 studios, with Frank LoCrasto adding piano and Ryan Dugre on second guitar. It sounded great instantly, but it didn’t seem like the right moment to release the track, and the track didn’t seem to be quite at home on In the Rainbow Rain. So I kept it under my hat. I’d had ‘It Hasn’t Happened Yet’ kicking around as well, and I’d always wanted to release that one on its own but I could never get the recording to sit quite right. Finally I had a tandem eureka moment with both of them – I figured out what I needed to do to fix ‘It Hasn’t Happened Yet’ and I felt the time was right for ‘In a Light.’ So I brushed them off and sent them to Dave Cerminara to mix. The whole process was incredibly smooth and easy. I think of these songs as two sides of the same coin, supporting each other by saying two different but complementary things. And even though I started them a couple years in the past they both seem to want to talk about the present and future.”

Catch Okkervil River Live:

9/21 – Evanston, IL – SPACE Tickets
9/22 – Evanston, IL – SPACE Tickets
9/23 – Grand Rapids, MI – Wealthy Theatre Tickets
9/24 – Ann Arbor, MI – The Ark Tickets
9/25 – Louisville, KY – Headliners Music Hall Tickets
9/26 – Nelsonville, OH – Stuart’s Opera House Tickets
9/28 – Nashville, TN – Third Man Records Tickets
9/29 – Atlanta, GA – City Winery Tickets
9/30 – Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre Tickets
10/1 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle Tickets
10/2 – Vienna, VA – Barns at Wolf Trap * RSVP
10/3 – Woodstock, NY Levon Helm Studios ^ RSVP
10/5 – Boston, MA – City Winery RSVP
10/6 – Brooklyn, NY – To Be Announced
10/7 – Holyoke, MA – Gateway City Arts Tickets
12/1 – Santa Ana, CA – Ebell of Santa Ana Tickets
12/2 – Ojai, CA – Ojai Women’s Club Tickets
12/3 – Oakland, CA – Starline Social Club RSVP
12/4 – Big Sur, CA – Henry Miller Memorial Library (early show) RSVP
12/4 – Big Sur, CA – Henry Miller Memorial Library (late show) RSVP
12/5 – Sonoma, CA – Sebastiani Theater RSVP
12/8 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios Tickets
12/9 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios Tickets
12/10 – Tacoma, WA – Fawcett Hall Tickets
12/11 – Bellingham, WA – Wild Buffalo Tickets

* On sale at a later time
^ with Elvis Perkins

Black Pumas and Brittany Howard will take the stage at the 2021 GRAMMY Awards this Sunday, March 14, joining the show’s all-star performance lineup alongside Bad Bunny, Cardi B, BTS, Brandi Carlile, DaBaby, Doja Cat, Billie Eilish, Mickey Guyton, Haim, Miranda Lambert, Lil Baby, Dua Lipa, Chris Martin, John Mayer, Megan Thee Stallion, Maren Morris, Post Malone, Roddy Ricch, Harry Styles, and Taylor Swift. Black Pumas’ celebrated debut album Black Pumas (Deluxe Edition) is nominated for Album of the Year, and their hit single “Colors” is nominated for Record of the Year and Best American Roots Performance. Brittany Howard is up for a whopping 6 nominations, including Best Rock Performance (“Stay High”), Best Rock Song (“Stay High”), Best Alternative Music Album (Jaime), Best R&B Performance (“Goat Head”), Best American Roots Performance (“Short and Sweet”), and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical (Jaime).

Hosted by Trevor Noah, CBS and the Recording Academy Present the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards airing live Sunday, March 14, 2021, at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT on CBS Television Network and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.