February 28, 2025 — After a rare cover of a neglected country classic, Mountain Home Music Company’s Darren Nicholson returns to form with an original, “Any Highway,” written with favorite collaborator Charles Humphrey III — the same team that produced one of 2024’s top singles, “Big Sky.”
“‘Any Highway’ is one of the first songs I ever wrote with Charles,” recallsNicholson. “Not only is it one of my favorites, but [the all-star collaboration] No Joke Jimmy’s always had this one in the set list, so I felt I needed to get a good studio recording of it.”
What the mandolin-slinging singer serves up is just that, backed by a crackerjack band that includes award-winning banjo player Kristin Scott Benson (Grascals, Benson) and fiddler Deanie Richardson (Sister Sadie), bassist Zach Smith (Town Mountain), ace studio drummer Tony Creasman and long time colleague Colby Laney (guitar), with harmonies provided by Jennifer Nicholson and Darren Nicholson Band member Kevin Sluder. Starting with a memorable “signature lick” that reharmonizes a slice of the melody, the song unreels in classic bluegrass fashion, anchoring a melancholy tale of lost love in up-tempo music and virtuosic picking:
Any highway headed out of town
Any back road where you ain’t around
You left me lonesome and I’m leaving now
Any highway headed out of town
“It’s a story of a man who is so heartbroken by a free-spirited young lady that he feels compelled to leave immediately,” Nicholson observes. “No plan, no direction, he just knows he has to go elsewhere. Sometimes, the best way to get over a heartache is by just getting to a place where you don’t have to stare it in the face anymore.”
Notes Humphrey, “‘Any Highway’ is the first song Darren and I wrote. We had met years ago in Alaska while playing in separate bluegrass bands together. I was, and still am, a long time admirer of Darren’s singing, picking, and larger than life personality. These are qualities I look for in co-writers. The song is a historical fiction account of ‘the one that got away.’ The style pays tribute to the bluegrass greats that perfected the hard-driving slick style of playing! I think it’s a really cool song, and it’s been the start of a fruitful co-writing friendship with Darren. ‘Any Highway’ is a modern day classic!”
“Any Highway” is streaming in Dolby Atmos spatial audio on Apple Music, Amazon Music and TIDAL. Listen to it HERE.
About Darren Nicholson
Darren Nicholson is a bluegrass and Americana musician based in Haywood County in the mountains of western North Carolina. A GRAMMY®-nominee and recipient of multiple International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, Darren has appeared countless times on WSM’s Grand Ole Opry, at the Ryman Auditorium, CMT, GAC, and many of the world’s most famous venues and networks. Darren is also renowned as a solo artist, session musician, and songwriter. After concluding a 15-year tenure as a founding member of award-winning bluegrass quintet, Balsam Range, Darren took the next step forward and began releasing music of his own, beginning with his album, Wanderer, featuring No. 1 song “Arkansas Without You.”