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Tipped by Kings of Leon’s Matthew Followill as the new band to watch in NME’s 2010 New Music issue (a sentiment echoed by Matt Costa on jambands.com), THE ROMANY RYE is touring in support of its debut album, Highway 1, Looking Back Carefully, an intimate collection of songs penned by former Colour guitarist Luke MacMaster. The singer-songwriter produced and recorded the album along with Delta Spirit’s Kelly Winwrich and the two were joined in the studio by a group of friends that included Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), David Quon (We Barbarians) and Blake Mills. Shortly after completing the album, MacMaster put together the band now known as THE ROMANY RYE, inviting Judson Spillyards, Joshua Spillyards and Ryan Hitt from Christopher Denny’s former backing band, The Natives, to join him.

Raised in the rustic mountain community of Big Bear, California, located outside Los Angeles, MacMaster grew up listening to his dad’s vinyl record collection and soon began crafting his own songs. From its vintage looking album art and organic instrumentation, to its deeply personal ruminations on life, love and despair, Highway 1, Looking Back Carefully recalls the L.A. songwriters of the 60s and 70s who first fused the intimacy of folk music with the vibrancy of rock and roll – and then blows through that intersection to blaze its own path.