On debut album Brand New Distance, Cimarron 615 announce themselves as a vibrant new voice with rich Nashville roots. The 10-song record channels a collective heritage that includes Poco, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Loretta Lynn into a refreshingly contemporary take on harmony-laden, narrative country rock. The album oozes world-class songcraft and innate musicality enhanced with achingly nuanced vocal harmonies, poignant lyrics, and sinewy solos. Marrying bluegrass instrumentation (banjo, mandolin, Dobro) to breezy California country rock, gritty blues, and pop sensibilities, Cimarron 615 effortlessly traverses everything from stripped-down acoustic arrangements to full-on three-guitar rock.

Cimarron 615’s story goes back to country-rock legends POCO and their late frontman Rusty Young, with whom all five members have musical history. When Young passed in 2021, Blue Élan Records head Kirk Pasich organized a tribute concert and album featuring the musicians who would become Cimarron 615 as the house band. The chemistry between the quintet was so palpable that Pasich offered them a record deal as a standalone touring act. The band is comprised of Rick Lonow (Poco, Flying Burrito Brothers) on drums, percussion and vocals; Jack Sundrud (Poco, Great Plains), bass and vocals; Michael Webb (Poco, Hank Williams Jr.), keyboards, mandolin, accordion and vocals; and Ronnie Guilbeau (Flying Burrito Brothers, Griffin-Yancey-Guilbeau, Palomino Road), on guitars and vocals.

Cimarron 615’s astoundingly filler-free Brand New Distance is their ultra-accomplished calling card as a singular new act with a charmingly old soul. It’s a record that lovingly ushers forward a country rock genre too often steeped in nostalgia, offering the tingling interpersonal dynamics and adventurous spirit that only new bands can capture.