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\n\tIn 2014, British singer-songwriter Coyle Girelli\u2019s indie rock band, The Chevin, went on hiatus, and he says, \u201cI jumped into a million other things.\u201d One of them was a trip to the Los Angeles home of another singer-songwriter Mac Davis<\/a>, who scored 15 Billboard Hot 100 hits between 1970 and 1981 \u2014 including the chart-topping \u201cBaby Don\u2019t Get Hooked On Me\u201d \u2014 and wrote or co-wrote memorable songs for such acts as Elvis Presley (<\/a>\u201cIn The Ghetto,\u201d \u201cA Little Less Conversation\u201d), Kenny Rogers<\/a> & The First Edition (Something\u2019s Burning\u201d), Dolly Parton <\/a>(\u201cWhite Limozeen\u201d) and Weezer<\/a> (\u201cTime Flies\u201d).<\/p>\n \n\tGirelli and Davis were both published by Primary Wave<\/a>, and its CEO Larry Mestel suggested they meet because, Mestel says, \u201cThey were both extraordinary writers \u2014 but also genuinely nice, down-to-earth human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMore than a decade after the two artists met \u2014 and nearly five years since Davis\u2019 death<\/a> in 2020 \u2014 Girelli will release the extraordinary result of their collaboration on Aug. 29: Out Of This Town<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tThe solo album, which Girelli also produced, features his interpretations of 10 songs he and Davis wrote and a coda by Davis that was lifted from a voice memo he sent to his writing partner. <\/p>\n \n\tGirelli, who\u2019s currently based in New York, says that he had Bruce Springsteen<\/a>\u2018s Nebraska <\/em>in mind when he arranged and recorded the songs on the album, and Out Of This Town<\/em>\u2018s acoustic guitar, pedal steel and piano sound is spare and crystalline. The richest instrument on the album is Girelli\u2019s voice, which, at moments, recalls Roy Orbison<\/a>\u2018s lush falsetto. <\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s appropriate then, that Orbison\u2019s onetime label, Sun Records, will release Out of This Town<\/em>. As Girelli recounts in this interview with Billboard<\/em>, he and Davis initially intended to record the album together and came close to a deal with another label until an executive shakeup derailed it.<\/p>\n \n\tEnter Sun, which Primary Wave acquired in 2021. Primary Wave and Sun Label Group chief strategy officer Dom Pandiscia, says, \u201cCoyle had played the demos of these songs for me years ago, and we\u2019ve talked regularly about finding the right way to bring them to market. The creative connection between Mac & Coyle align perfectly with the history of Sun,\u201d he adds, \u201cwhile also leaning it forward and adding to its legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tGirelli talks with Billboard<\/em> about the set and his relationship with Davis below. <\/p>\n \n\tCoyle is an unusual name. What\u2019s its origin? <\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s an Irish name. My father was Irish and my mother, Italian. Very New York but not very common in England.<\/p>\n \n\tHow did you come to collaborate with Mac Davis?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI think it was Larry [Mestel] who shared a performance of me in my old band, The Chevin. We performed on [Late Show With<\/em> David Letterman<\/em>]. He shared it with Mac, and according to Mac\u2019s wife Lise, Mac said something along the lines of, \u201cThis kid is the next Roy Orbison.\u201d He wanted to get in a word with me, so Primary Wave threw that out. <\/p>\n \n\tI was super excited. It was a real curve ball. I had only just started cowriting outside of the band \u2014 it was a matter of months \u2014 and I got this opportunity.<\/p>\n \n\tThe next time I was in L.A., I went over to Mac\u2019s house. I didn\u2019t know what to expect. I had listened to the music <\/a>he had written, but I had no idea how it was going to look. We grabbed guitars, sat over a cup of coffee and wrote something together probably within an hour of meeting each other. It\u2019s a song called \u201cAlready Gone,\u201d which is on the record.<\/p>\n