Hailing from North Mississippi is Jimbo Mathus with his scorching new track, “Ready to Run.” Moreover, Mathus asserts that the track’s upcoming parent album, Blue Healer, will not merely be a collection of songs, but rather a thematic concept album: “It’s the story of a man in a southern landscape who is swept insanely apart by internal and external winds. He digs deeper and deeper into the very fabric of his reality, experiencing love and lust, despair, hope and sheer animal exhilaration on levels few ever do. He is tested in every way imaginable and achieves a sort of enlightenment — gains power and understanding of life’s mysteries. Yet questions remain.” Clearly Mathus has been hard at work on this one.

Though “Ready to Run” is uplifting, it was spawned from a tragic accident. According to Mathus, “I wrote ’Ready to Run’ for a friend who had been in a horrible automobile accident and suffered a broken spine. He was getting back on his feet again and, when I saw him , the song just came to me.” Though, it took some revising to get the song just the way he wanted: “ I reworked it two or three times, which is a lot for me, to get it just right. I wanted it to capture the power and hope of having another shot at living after a near death experience.” “Ready to Run” will be featured on Mathus’ forthcoming record Blue Healer, which is set to be released April 21 (you can also find Mathus on tour here). Stream the track below: