“Every song this album is about love in one way or another,” Oteil Burbridge explains of his latest record, Water in the Desert. The nine originals capture the emotion in its many iterations, exploring the challenges and heartaches of interpersonal connection, as well as the moments of pure bliss.

While as of late, the bass player has found himself in new musical climes through his work in Dead & Company, that milieu is not reflected in the material on Water in the Desert, which he composed nearly a decade ago. “I had just taken my band off the road and began to make an effort to spend way more time at home,”he recalls. “I had just met my wife, Jess, and, when I realized how happy I was at home, I didn’t want to be on the road all the time anymore. So I stopped solo touring. I started writing those songs right after we met but, as life progressed, I kept delaying finishing them. In my defense, we did move three times and have a baby, but I finally just decided to put it out [in order] to be able to move on to the next one. My head is in a very different place now, but it is an accurate picture of my mindset at that time in my life, and it was indeed a precious time to me.”
 

Burbridge acknowledges that he can be self-critical in assessing his studio efforts, even as he identifies some of the progress he’s made over the course of his solo recording career, which began with 1998’s Love of a Lifetime and includes The Family Secret (2003) and Believer (2005). “I’m never happy with any of my records. I’m too judgmental of so many little things,” he reveals. “The live ones seem to turn out better, as far as what I’m looking for in music. There’s something about the energy of being put on the spot and not having the choice to change any of it later that puts you in the magic zone. But I had an amazing group of people on this record, and that certainly translates when you hear it. There was a good feeling in the studio because of the people that were participating, and you can feel that when you listen to it. Music is all about the feeling it gives you, so in that sense, I’m very happy with it. And though I’m no Joni Mitchell or Robert Hunter, my lyrics are better than [they were on] my last two records. I’m not a poet, but I have things on my mind that I feel are more meaningful than the usual materialistic shallow stuff I hear—what Cornel West refers to as ‘bling bling, g-string.’”

Burbridge enlisted a series of Atlanta-based musicians to join him on Water in the Desert. First and foremost, the roster includes his older sibling Kofi, who appears on keyboards and flute. Oteil explains, “I didn’t want it to be a ‘bass guitar’ record. I wanted to feature Kofi and the singers more than myself, honestly. I wanted people to hear the Burbridge Brothers in their natural element.” The pair were joined by guitarist Dave Yoke, drummers Lil’ John Roberts and Sean O’Rourke, and Miguel Atwood Ferguson on strings. Producer David Ryan Harris, Alfreda Gerald and Mark Rivers handled most of the vocal duties, while Burbridge himself stepped in for the LP’s moving final track.