Albuquerque, NM—Singer-songwriter Tom Andes didn’t know he’d be leaving New Orleans when he started writing the songs on his new album and first full-length LP, Wonderful Days. Steeped in Delta blues, gospel, New Orleans R&B, as well as traditional and outlaw country, the songs on the record were a natural outgrowth from the collaborations with New Orleans musicians that produced his first two EPs, which were eventually compiled on vinyl. He’d been gigging many of the songs in New Orleans for a couple years when he moved to Albuquerque in 2024 and started making his new record late that year.

“It only occurred to me while we were recording this, while I was sequencing the songs, that this is in many respects an album about falling in love with New Orleans, and also an album about leaving it,” Andes says. 

Produced by Matthew Tobias, who recorded it at empty house studios in Albuquerque, much of the record was recorded live in the studio with Jeff Wilson on bass, Dave Purcell on drums, and Alex McMahon on tenor banjo, pedal steel, baritone and second electric guitar. A second series of sessions in Tobias’s home studio produced the smaller, more intimate and sometimes experimental tracks that fill out the record, including the country gospel title track.

Running the gamut from blues to country—even using a phaser to emulate Waylon Jennings’ 1970s guitar tone on one track, “Politicking”—the songs on the record tell the stories of people stuck in their ways, for better or for worse. In “Old Man Bar,” an aging barfly contemplates the life he gave up to pursue the life on the road romanticized in country songs. “Walk to the River,” looks at the world from the perspective of a man sleeping in his brother’s car, walking to the Mississippi River and back early in the morning. And “Black Dog Redux” pokes fun at the absurd fantasies of sex and musical stardom heavy metal sells to mostly adolescent boys.

In the middle of the record’s first side, “When I First Came to New Orleans” tells the story of a New Orleans lifer, someone captivated by both the good and bad in the city, and all he suffers to stay there. By contrast, two songs on the second side of the record are about leaving the city, though if the music is any indication, Andes’ heart hasn’t really left at all.

Wonderful Days will be available on vinyl and streaming on June 5, 2026. The album is currently available for pre-order on Bandcamp.

Press Photos

Tom Andes

Born and raised in New Hampshire, Andes grew up listening to classic rock, grunge, and punk, but a visit to New Orleans when he was eighteen changed his life, initiating a love of the traditional music that still informs so much of his songwriting.

As well as a musician, Andes is an accomplished fiction writer. Recently, he has had a story in Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories 2025 and published his debut detective novel, Wait There Till You Hear from Me, with Crescent City Books.

Contact

For Press and Booking, please contact
thomasandes@gmail.com

For Licensing and Label Inquiries, please contact
aaron@southerncrescentrecording.com