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Eager to trade a rooted, restless life at home for new horizons, indie-folk songwriter B.R. Lively decided to hit the road last summer…for good. Leaving town in a renovated 1991 Winnebago named Joanie, he began making his way across the country, playing shows during his nightly pit stops. — It was a new way of life — a whirlwind of blue skies, campsites, national parks, state routes, driveways, and mile markers, with new landscapes flashing by the windshield at highway speed. Lively felt transfixed, transformed, inspired. He’d literally unplugged himself from his world back home, now living in a cozy, minimal house on wheels equipped with solar paneled electricity. Along the way, he finished writing songs for his first solo album, “Into the Blue”. — “Into the Blue” is a cinematic record rooted in folk music, Southern Gothic soul, and the therapeutic rush of the open road. There are sweeping string arrangements, folk anthems, Motown-inspired rhythms, Nick Drake-worthy acoustic guitars, and slow, stripped-down ballads. — -No newcomer to the stage, Lively launched his career as a teenager in Dallas, Texas, cutting his teeth with a string of club gigs in Deep Ellum. He headed east after graduation, settling in Athens, GA, to attend college and broaden his horizons. Several years later, Into the Blue finds him returning to central Texas, where he recorded the album’s 11 songs alongside producer Gordy Quist (the frontman of Texas’ own Band of Heathens), longtime friend Thomas Avery (who wrote and recorded the album’s lush string arrangements), and Band of Heathens members Scott Davis and Richard Millsap. The most electric, nuanced project of his career, Into the Blue turns Lively’s experiences — both at home and on the road — into what he proudly calls a “sonic journey of spirit.” –