Sadler Vaden
Anybody Out There?
Dirty Mag Records/Thirty Tigers
It’s been 4 years since the multi talented guitarist and singer songwriter Sadler Vaden released his 2016 self-titled album, in the last 2 years he’s been writing and logging time at the studio to release 10 new tracks called Anybody Out There?. It has all the passion and fire he brought during his time with Drivn’ N Cryin’, and all the subtleties he contributes as a member of Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit all wrapped into one fantastic album. Each song is a complete powerhouse unto itself and honestly, it’s hard for me to choose a favorite as the entire album shines in different ways.
Starting off with the power pop “Next To you”, Sadler matches the lyrics to the music with “Cross my heart hope to stay alive know that I’ll always be by your side. Hell, highwater, misfortune at times. All this I will go through just to be next to you.” Sadler slows the pace with “Don’t worry”, and has an great overall message to take things as they come and “don’t worry yourself to death”. “Golden Child”, continues the quality writing with very interesting lyrics and wanting to know more, I reached out to Sadler to chat about it and the album.
About “Golden Child”, Sadler says, “The first couple lines just fell out of my mouth and I just decided to roll with it. It became this song about this coveted child, everythings always gone their way, their lucky and handsome, and that just kind of felt like, its not really their choice to going through life like that. I started to write about the perils of it, of no one ever taking you seriously.” Of the album in general Sadler says, “There definitely is a thematic element to the album, I didn’t really intent that but, I started writing about the world around me and how I perceived it, so those themes seeped into the record a little bit.” Indeed they did and the title song, “Anybody Out There”, proves that point by providing what I feel are the roots of what the album represents. “Modern times”, “Peace and Harmony”, and “Be Here Now” continue those thematic elements that Sadler spoke to and while they all flow the same direction, they each have a unique message to share. “Good Man”, co written with multi-talented musician Audley Freed, was the song that Sadler says really brought the album together and is a statement about standing up for what is right and being that change that you wish to see in the world around you. Sadler invited 400 Unit alumni Jimbo Hart to play bass and Derry DeBorja to sit in on keys, as well as drummer and friend Fred Eltringham of bands like The Wallflowers and Sheryl Crow. John Eldridge sits in on Hammond B3 and there is additional drumming by Julian Dorio and additional bass by Joel King. The bulk of the album was recorded in Nashville, TN at The Bakery and additional recording at The Shoebox. Sadler produced the entire album with The Bakery engineering done by Paul Ebersold and The Shoebox engineering done by Owen Lewis.
Anybody Out There? is available now everywhere online or directly through his website, sadlervaden.com. Look for Sadler out on the road again soon with Jason Isbell and the 400 unit but keep an eye out on his various social media as well. While there is more time between his full albums he tends to release singles from time to time and you definitely don’t want to miss anything Sadler has been working on.
