Too Late At Night

Minnesota’s most delightful americana band, Doug Collins & The Receptionists, return with "Too Late At Night. Their 1st new album in 4 years, this new collection is decidedly more country that the last and is destined to become a modern classic. Evoking equal parts Bob Wills, Hank Williams and Merle
Haggard, the band delivers original country tunes with wry humor and a rare accessibility that has helped them win over fans across the midwest.

All penned by dapper frontman Doug Collins, the songs are both humorous and heartfelt, singing about falling off the wagon, the absurdity of love and all kinds of loss. From “Mama’s Shoes”, inspired by his mother’s passing to the prescient “Stay the Same”, surprisingly written before the pandemic, these songs are personal, relatable and speak to loneliness and hard times, everything that is at the heart of a good country song.

Recorded with Rob Genadek at Uptown Sound in Minneapolis, Doug decided to bring in no guest musicians and just feature his regular Receptionists. Charlie Varley on bass and vocals, Randy Broughten on pedal steel, and Billy Dankert on drums and vocals.

“I really wanted to show off the band”, Doug says. “The way the band gelled, especially with the new material, made everything sound so much deeper and lived in this time around”. And after months of not playing together during the pandemic, the joy of making music was something they really wanted to capture. “Like everyone, we'd been through the ringer, and we lived and drank and laughed and cried throughout the whole damn thing”.

That camaraderie is on full display here, showing a tight knit group of players that truly loves making music and has the confidence and musical agility to make new tunes sound like country classics. As rock journalist and author Jim Walsh says, “Just in time for the spring fever to end all spring fevers, the Receptionists deliver a 40's flavored country romp that evokes Bob Wills and Hank Williams and gives us all permission to imbibe in a celebratory toast to surviving and thriving”.

After a few years of heavy losses and hard times, this is indeed the album to bring us back to life.