[Cover photo credit to Taylor Hoover]

Montana-based artist Sterling Drake has announced his debut album The Shape I’m In, due out May 2, 2025 via Calusa Music/Missing Piece Records. Produced by Grammy-winning Icelandic musician Thorleifur Davidsson (Sierra Ferrell, KALEO), the new album reflects on “love, heartbreak, purpose, and the revelations that bring us back home.”

Drake has also shared his new single “She Means Everything to Me,” which is described as “a tender confession of gratitude for an unwavering partner.” Naturally, the single arrives just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Drake says:

‘She Means Everything to Me’ explores personal struggle and the redemptive power of love. The song is ultimately framed as a conversation with God about the hardships I faced in the early stages of my career and the adoration I felt for a partner who had been a stable figure during a tumultuous time in my life. Navigating this early stage of life can be extremely taxing on a relationship, but if you both weather the storm, it can ultimately create a meaningful love that endures.

Drake draws from Country, Folk, Celtic, and Bluegrass traditions and his work so far is concerned with “the fundamental search for belonging that defines us.”

In 2021, Blake began releasing a series of singles and EPs and in 2024, he won Male Honky Tonk Artist of the Year at the annual Ameripolitan Awards in Austin.

Drake hopes “the message of his new music will help inspire those in his fellow ranching community who may be struggling with mental health issues or substance abuse.”

He explains:

I’ve found songs to be particularly effective in reaching people that might not otherwise be ready to have these kinds of conversations. Ranchers tend to have their guard up, but there’s a sense of trust and vulnerability that comes with music that can really affect change in people.