the new album will be released as Joe Hedges.
we are going to begin phasing out the July For Kings name, brand, and chapter. the line up will remain

me vocals, guitar, and piano,
Dan McQuinn drums, percussion, programming
T Miller cello, guitar, and keyboard.
We’re holding bassist auditions soon.

what is july for kings? i started asking myself that at some point last year. with drew’s departure, the question was even more pertanent. T and i are the only remaining members of the original july for kings. after replacing our original drummer, playing with six different bassists, and splitting with our founding guitarist, i think it’s time to let go of july for kings. more importantly, the new record doesn’t really sound like july for kings. with the Nostalgia album we tried to further define JFK as a straight ahead pop alt-rock outfit, but this is more of fresh start. it’s been five years as july for kings and feels like eternity. time to formally move on.

we’ve known for a little while that we did not want to release the new record as JFK. after months and months of discussions and brainstorming we settled on a new band name…for about a month. it didn’t feel right. T mentioned to me that he had tried to live with the new name but could not. i was having similar feelings and as it turns out, dan was too. the big names were too big and sounded like posturing. the quirky names were too silly. after doing some thinking and discussing it with everyone, i decided the best option was to use joe hedges. this is not to take away from dan and t’s contributions at all. it’s just the right thing to do at this point in time for all of us. T said “i would be just as proud if not more using joe hedges than any other name we could come up with.” i thought dan might have a more difficult time but he’s also been very understanding and even excited. i am so grateful.

it is worth mentioning that few solo albums are really solo in the truest sense of the word, and this one is no exception. i enlisted even MORE poeple to help with its creation than past albums, including my closest friends and former band members, even my family.

i know this seems weird but there are a lot of good things about this! it puts more pressure on me. if everything around me changes i am still joe hedges. nobody can really take that away. and i feel more of a freedom to be able to reinvent myself in the future.

we intend to perform as JFK for a short while and start using Joe Hedges more and more on marquees. we will do July For Kings songs and songs from “my” new “solo” album. (weird. gonna take some getting used to.) i’ll keep updating this website and this blog until i get everything transferred over. eventually, joehedges.com will be the new center of operations. if you have any questions about any of this i still answer e-mail: joehedges at julyforkings.net or joehedges at joehedges.com.

thank you for making July For Kings everything it was.
coming of age.
shaking off some dust.
yours,

joe