Dan Hubbard didn’t set out to write a concept album. But as he compiled the six songs that became his first studio release since 2019, Hubbard said the thread of Letting Go felt obvious.
“The idea of ‘letting go’ has a few different meanings,” he said.
It’s partly about loving someone.
“When you love someone, you hold on, you know?” he said. “Obviously there’s times for that, but what’s been sticking with me the past couple years is, if you love someone, you let them go. You have to let them be who they want to be, where they want to be. That’s the big theme in this record.”
The EP is the first of a two-part release—a strategic move aimed at giving his work a bit more time to breathe.
“These days, you have to be smart about how you release stuff. The last album I released in 2019, I put a full-length album out, and then it was just like—and there it goes. It’s gone,” he said. “We’ve tailored the rollout to hopefully be effective and long-lasting.”
Volume 2, a new collection themed around nostalgia, is currently in production.
Another letting go: Hubbard eschewed playing in bars for this album release tour, which will stop for the first time in Bloomington-Normal in January for a night at the Castle Theatre. He picked up house shows and listening rooms, wanting to play in places where people actually hear the music—especially since Letting Go is deeply personal.
“A couple years ago, my wife had to rush me to the hospital. I had a vertigo episode, which I had never experienced,” he said. “We thought I was having a stroke. It became apparent to me, as I was healing from that, that I had some stuff from my past I hadn’t dealt with. I really also had to work, throughout the process of making this record the last couple years, on letting go of some guilt and shame.”
Professionally, Hubbard approached this project differently from any other, not placing too much emphasis on if or when it would be done, or what it would sound like. Releasing the pressure, he said, resulted in some of the best music of his career.
“Sonically, I tried a bunch of stuff I’d never tried before,” he said.
That includes forays into R&B, soul and pop, folded into his solid indie folk/Americana vibe honed over two decades of songwriting.
“It’s letting go of people’s expectations of me, letting go of my own expectations of me as an artist, not caring what anyone thinks and going into it completely open,” Hubbard said. “I think it’s important to not care going into creating something. There’s a time that comes, after you’ve made the record, to start caring what it sounds like.”
When that time came, Ken Coomer [Uncle Tupelo, Wilco] and master producer/mixer/engineer Gabe Masterson mixed Letting Go, with mastering by Jonathan Pines at Urbana-based Private Studios. And three songs on the EP—Remember, Sad Eyes and Open Up—were semifinalists in the 2024 International Songwriting Competition.
“But, in general, I was just like, hey, maybe this will come out, maybe it’ll be something I do for fun. That was a really freeing thought,” he said.
Dan Hubbard's EP Letting Go is available on vinyl and streaming platforms. He'll play a full band show Jan. 17 at the Castle Theatre. Champaign-Urbana native Kayla Brown plays an opening set. Tickets are $20 at thecastletheatre.com.
