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Today’s the day the Ryan Montbleau Band has been looking forward to since they first entered the studio in March to record a follow-up to 2006’s One Fine Color. Now the band finally gets to share its sophomore album, Patience on Friday, with the rest of the world. And they should all dig it — it’s one of those rare records that nimbly moves between moments of sadness and visions of hope while remaining a focused collection of beautiful tunes.

The Ryan Montbleau Band recorded it at Woodstock’s Applewood Studios, working on it during the rare breaks that playing 200+ shows a year allows. They hired an outside producer, but the band quickly realized that if you want something done right, you need to do it yourself. The end result of their efforts presents 14 tracks (12 of them new) that show off the talents of the band and its special guests.

Montbleau is the guitar-slingin’ songwriter who writes and sings most of the material on Patience. The new album shows how Ryan’s songs have evolved and matured without losing the free-wheeling enthusiasm that made his early material exciting. Montbleau is always on the road, so I wasn’t surprised that he was at a rest stop in Fargo, North Dakota, when he called me to talk about the album:

Scott Bernstein: Did you have a vision of what the album would become when you first entered the studio in March?

Ryan Montbleau: It really did turn out like we envisioned it, because I knew it was gonna be a little more open this time. The songs and arrangements weren’t as completely nailed down as they were on One Fine Color. So we knew that we needed to be a little more open in the studio to work things out.

All of the tunes came together really well. We started tracking in March, and just kinda kept goin’. Anytime we weren’t on the road, which wasn’t often, we went to the studio to work on the album. I was actually kinda surprised how it came together so well. The songs definitely got fully realized. Read on at Hidden Track for more of the Ryan Montbleau interview..