A few things about Corbin Pratt.
He can play the pedals off of the pedal steel, but he doesn’t let it get to his head. He is a remarkable listener - the way that he responds to the music around him is always pitch-perfect. He can be subtle but isn’t bashful when he wants to dig in and take the spotlight.
The point is - he can pretty much do anything, but is tastefully restrained, especially when painting his parts across our (frankly pretty busy) palate of strings, horns, and everything else. He played on the last record, and we had to have him back.
Corbin tracked all of his parts this year from a friend’s basement in Nashville - he moved down there with his wife and son just a few weeks before recording. So, a few weeks into March, we got a bunch of tracks in a Google Drive. It was like Christmas morning, opening up and listening through each take to piece together our favorite bits.
Corbin took the instrumental break in Midwest. Listen to that - and you’ll agree that we made the right choice having him back on the team. There’s more of his work lathered across a few other songs on the record, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Corbin - thanks so much for your time, talent, and consideration. Sending our best to little Santiago as well!