Midland

Double Grammy® nominees. Academy of Country Music’s Best New Group. Groundbreakers. Progressive traditionalists. Critics’ darlings. Road warriors. But before they were Midland, they were three culture-forward roots artists exploring music through video, fashion, curation and, yes, bar gigs.

Beyond their indifference to “how Nashville does it,” bassist/vocalist Cameron Duddy, guitarist/vocalist Jess Carson and lead singer/guitarist Mark Wystrach were a loose collective of friends who came together in Jackson Hole for Duddy’s wedding. Carson and Wystrach started writing songs together – and decided to check into Tornillo, Texas’ legendary Sonic Ranch studio to record. Duddy came along to document the proceedings but ended up in the most cosmic country trio since the Flying Burrito Brothers.

Since then, there’s been the Houston Rodeo, broken attendance records, No. 1 hit song “Drinkin’ Problem,” two albums on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, a major Washington Post Sunday magazine feature, a Pollstar cover, profiles in Esquire, Vogue and The Los Angeles Times, as well as performances on the CMA, ACM & CMT Music Awards.

But, before all of that, there was this: Midland: The Sonic Ranch Sessions. Shot for nothing more than the memories, directors Cameron Duddy and Brian Loschiavo have created both an intimate look into how records get made, bands are born and magic isn’t manufactured, but sparked. Interwoven with the band’s path to becoming one of the most unlikely forces in modern country, Midland: The Sonic Ranch Sessions, and accompanying soundtrack, does the rarest thing of all: it captures the messy, thrilling, at times vexing gestation and birth of a band that’s become one of the biggest fan-favorites in country music today.