Dark Skies<\/em> \u2014\u00a0out on Jan. 16 \u2014\u00a0with producer Adam Odor at Yellow Dog Studios in San Marcos, Texas. His eponymous band showcases on the album, the first of Kee\u2019s records that has featured his full touring outfit. Kee sings lead and plays rhythm guitar. He is joined by guitarist Spencer Carlson, drummer Paul Pinon, bassist Joey Sisk, Chris Loyd on keys, and Jake Waylon on guitar, mandolin, and harmony vocals.<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cThis is the first one where those songs were either written on the road or written at home and then taken to rehearsal where we all wrote our parts from the beginning,\u201d Kee says. \u201cI think you can hear it. To me, it sounds cohesive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe songs themselves are slices of Kee\u2019s life and the current world as he sees it. When he was stuck writing the bridge to \u201cBlack Butterfly,\u201d his eight-year-old daughter, McKinley, suggested \u201cfly away\u201d and ended up becoming a co-writer on one of the record\u2019s standout cuts.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnother of those, \u201cBeing a Kid,\u201d started when Kee watched McKinley getting ready for school and contemplated the difference that a bad day at school meant in his youth versus what it means for his daughter. Kee spells it out in explicit detail when he sings, \u201cHey baby girl, I heard it was a rough one at school today\/Another shooter showed up, but he didn\u2019t get you this time,\u201d over a haunting string arrangement.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat one stayed in the shadows for a while,\u201d he says. \u201cI let the guys hear it, and they all loved it \u2014\u00a0in a way that I guess you can love that song. I never really thought it would be on one of our records, but I asked them and they 100 percent said, \u2018Yes, absolutely.\u2019 I don\u2019t really like arguing with people. I shy away from being controversial. I don\u2019t think the song is controversial at all. Essentially, it\u2019s saying, \u2018Kids being killed is bad.\u2019 But you get people from both sides who will find what they want to find with it, or assume things about your character or personality or political beliefs. That\u2019s on them if they want to waste their time doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tOne of the singles Kee has shared ahead of the album is \u201cBewitched,\u201d which features a Texas songwriting mainstay, Jamie Lin Wilson, collaborating as both a writer and singer. The tune is a love song featuring a couple going off the grid to escape the chaos of modern existence. Kee wrote the song about his wife and needing a getaway from the ugliness of day-do-day life. He took it to Odor, who heard it as a duet, and Kee reached out to Wilson.<\/p>\n
\n\tKee asked if she had any suggestions for the song, and Wilson ended up overhauling a verse, landing a co-writing credit on the tune. \u201cShe knocked it out, and it was chills,\u201d Kee says. \u201cI remember driving down the road listening to it for the first time, and I couldn\u2019t believe she was singing on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n