Joshua Hedley Returns with “All Hat”

Joshua Hedley will release All Hat on October 24, 2025 via New West Records. The 11-song set was produced by Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel & Joshua Hedley, and was the first album recorded at Benson’s new studio, The Bismeaux Barn in Austin, TX. All Hat is a lively collection of Western Swing tunes that brims with excitement, wit, and verve, as Hedley expertly navigates the tricky dance rhythms of this jazzy style of twang.

It’s a sharp left turn in a career defined by sharp left turns, following his 2018 debut Mr. Jukebox, which explored ‘60s countrypolitan and established him as one of the finest old-school country crooners in all of Nashville. Its acclaimed 2022 follow up, Neon Blue, jumped ahead a few decades as Hedley turned his attention to the much-maligned period in country music: the early ‘90s, when a new wave of singing cowboy took their twang into rock arenas.

Rather than his trusty touring band the Hedliners, for All Hat, Hedley worked with members of Asleep at the Wheel, including veteran fiddle player Jason Roberts. “This album is my pièce de resistance,” he says. “It’s all been building up to this moment. I feel like I’m making music I love more than any other style.” 

Rolling Stone premiered the video for the album’s first single, “Fresh Hot Biscuits.” With its bouncy momentum and crisp fiddle lines, the percolating energy Hedley and Asleep at the Wheel bring to the song makes it sound like they’ve been playing it together for ages. However, it existed only a few hours before they tracked it. Hedley says, “I wrote it the night before. I sat down and wrote it and thought it was pretty good, but when we recorded it the next day, it really came to life.” That’s the prime ingredient: what flour and milk are to fresh hot biscuits, energy and rhythm are to Western Swing. 

SHARE JOSHUA HEDLEY’S “FRESH HOT BISCUITS” VIDEO DIRECTED BY JOSHUA SHOEMAKER 

A mainstay for years at the world-famous Robert’s Western World in Nashville (where he holds residency to this day), Hedley is as real as it gets. He has become a master of so many different styles, so much he’s been dubbed “the singin’ professor of Country & Western.” But in truth, he remains a devoted student of the genre: a player who’s always learning new techniques and always finding new perspectives on the music he loves.

Hedley has been studying the form and its various mutations his entire life. When his parents bought him a violin and signed him up for lessons, the eight-year-old quickly grew impatient with the Suzuki Method and just wanted to play country fiddle. When other kids his age were playing the latest video games, he spent hours in his room teaching himself old Bob Wills tunes. “I didn’t grow up playing in garage bands. I grew up at the goddamned VFW hall. I grew up playing with guys in their fifties and sixties.” 

“When I first heard Asleep at the Wheel and their Bob Wills tribute, it blew my mind that there was a band out there still playing this kind of music.” When he was 15, Hedley recorded his own tribute to Wills, although it didn’t get a wide release. “I found a copy of it recently, and it’s not as bad as I expected. I’d only been singing in public for about two weeks, but I might’ve been a better fiddle player then than I am now.” He’s certainly good enough now to earn an invitation to join Asleep at the Wheel for a tour of America, Europe, and Australia, and when Ray Benson — his hero since childhood — suggested they work on a record together, Hedley jumped at the opportunity. Benson oversaw everything with a calm demeanor and an easy hand, suggesting some stylistic changes for a few songs but primarily letting the musicians just have fun together.

“Obviously he was in the producer role and he did produce the shit out of this record, but a lot of it was him just letting us cut loose and see what happens. We’d work out a song and he’d step in with some suggestions. It was amazing to see how it’s done not only in real time, but from one of the greats. I don’t think he knows just how much he was teaching me.” 

From writing to arranging to recording, the whole process was an intense educational experience for the singin’ professor. All Hat doesn’t try to update the style, because Hedley and Asleep at the Wheel understand that it doesn’t need any kind of modernizing. It can sound as immediate and urgent and just plain fun now as it ever did. And he hopes folks will get up and dance. “At its core Western Swing is just dance music. Bob Wills didn’t play theatres; he played dance halls. The music is for dancing, and that’s what I wanted to come through on these songs.” Listeners will have a chance to do just that when Hedley launches his initial tour dates in support of All Hat in Chicago, Illinois on September 4th. Please see tour dates, with more to be added, below. 

All Hat will be available across digital platforms, compact disc, and standard black vinyl. A limited “Texas Sky Blue” color vinyl edition & limited compact disc edition, both autographed by Joshua Hedley, are available for pre-order NOW via NEW WEST RECORDS.  

All Hat Track Listing: 

1. All Hat (No Cattle)

2. Boogie Woogie Tennessee 

3. Fresh Hot Biscuits

4. Stuck in Texas (feat. Ray Benson)

5. Hedliner Polka

6. Come Take A Ride With Me

7. Clueless

8. Mean Mama Blues

9. Crawlin’ Home To You

10. The Waltz I Promised To You

11. Over The Line

Joshua Hedley and The Hedliners On Tour: 

September 4 — Chicago, IL — Broken Hearts Bar 

September 6 — Sunburg, IL — Monson Lake Opry Festival 

September 7 — Davenport, IA — Raccoon Motel 

September 19 — The White Horse

September 20 — Luckenbach, TX (w/ Asleep At The Wheel)

September 25 — Austin, TX — The Broken Spoke

September 26 — San Antonio, TX — The Lonesome Rose 

September 27 —  Austin, TX — The White Horse