Paul Benjaman Band, ‘Sneaker’ [Exclusive Premiere]

The Oklahoma-based Paul Benjaman Band are readying their sophomore album, Sneaker, which is due out on Oct. 30, and they're sharing the title track exclusively with readers of The Boot.

"Sneaker" is a guitar-centric track that embodies how the band hopes Sneaker, the follow-up album to 2010's Something, will affect listeners.

"The whole album ended up carrying a narrative of the night life," Paul Benjamin tells The Boot. "The title track, "Sneaker," references the girl at the show that arrives after you start playing, is reserved and hangs way in the back. Before long, you catch her getting down in the back of the dance floor, and then she's sneaking out right as you're playing the last tune.

"It serves as the album title in hopes that Sneaker does the same: comes out of nowhere and grabs onto you for a little while," Benjamin adds.

The sound of the band -- made up of Benjaman (guitar, vocals), Jesse Aycock (steel guitar, guitar), Jeff Newsome (electric piano), Andrew Bones (drums) and Bo Hallford (electric bass) -- is often described as the "New Tulsa Sound." Sneaker is the band's personal take on the 1970's "Tulsa Sound," when Tulsa-based musicians were backing rock stars, with J.J. Cale and Leon Russell leading the way.

“It was reactionary to current trends," Benjamin explains of his inspiration for Sneaker. "I’d been attending quite a few singer-songwriter events, because that’s a lot of what’s going on now in roots music, and on one occasion in particular, I caught myself being bored to death, to the point of it being pivotal to my musical mission. The very next day, I woke up and cut the 17 tracks we had recorded for the album down to the dozen that were designed to get people moving.”

The Paul Benjaman Band have toured and played with the likes of Nickel Creek, Lucinda Williams and more.

Listen to the Paul Benjamin Band, "Sneaker":