After months of gossip and speculation regarding a big announcement coming from successful jam-band Umphrey’s McGee, the band has finally spilled the beans. An article released today in Rolling Stone Magazine, shares details about the band’s recent trip to London where they had the opportunity to record at the infamous Abbey Road Studios.
The article, written by Rolling Stone veteran David Fricke, reveals specifics on Umphrey’s McGee’s visit to the legendary studio as well as information on the band’s upcoming plans to release the recordings; all of which were all recorded in an intense 12-hour studio session. The new album, titled The London Session, will feature a mix of new, original music along with re-arranged Umphrey’s tunes and is set to go on sale April 7th.
“It’s like going to church,” Guitarist Brendan Bayliss says of Abbey Road. “There is a reason why everyone goes to London and wants to walk across that street and get their photo taken,” imitating the cover photo on The Beatles’ namesake LP. “When we got there, everybody was doing it. We were loading in our gear, and you could tell people were staring at us, like, ‘Who the hell are these guys?'”
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These recordings provide an intimate, stripped down look at the band. Outside of their extensive repertoire, Umphrey’s is also well-known for their ability to cover all types of music. While at Abbey Road, they paid tribute to The Beatles during their session by performing “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” which will be included on the upcoming album.
The thought of including a cover of any kind, especially from The Beatles was not the band’s plan upon entering the studio. “We initially bagged the idea… We’re going to start a Beatles song and the engineers there will be like, ‘Really, you’re going to do this?,'” said Brendan Bayliss, but they did it anyway. He adds, “If we don’t play it wrong, it crushes. And we nailed it.”
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