RootsGrass Records Launches With Debut Release: ‘A Call to the Wild’ by The Howlers

California imprint launches with an eight-track debut pairing bluegrass instrumentation with reggae rhythm.

CORONA, CA, UNITED STATES, September 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — RootsGrass Records, the new independent imprint of The Storytellers Band, LLC, today announced its launch and its first release: “A Call to the Wild,” the debut album from California music project The Howlers, released Aug. 21 and available on all major streaming platforms. Across eight tracks, banjo, fiddle and mandolin carry bluegrass melodies over one-drop reggae grooves and deep basslines — the album ranges from the easy contentment of “Good Enough For Me” to the slow-burn warning of “The Bill Comes Due” and the barbed wit of “Platitudes.”

“The lonesome ache of bluegrass and the easy roll of reggae always felt like neighbors to us,” said Scott Diehl, Principal, RootsGrass Records. “We kept banjo, fiddle and mandolin out front, set the rhythm section into a one-drop, and rewrote until the two stopped fighting each other. That tension is the whole record.”

The album’s songs were written by Scott Diehl, Michael Garcia, and Lance Frantzich. Vocal and instrumental performances were generated using artificial intelligence tools, then auditioned, selected, and refined across multiple takes.

“The words, the stories, the feeling — those start on paper,” Diehl said. “AI tools build the performances, and our job is judgment: which take carries the feeling, which arrangement gets cut. The tools are new; the craft is old — song sense, story sense and taste decide everything the technology touches. The first track is called ‘AI Music Is For Me’ because the method is part of the story.”

“We built the label we wanted to release on,” said Michael Garcia, Principal, RootsGrass Records. “Nobody upstairs deciding a fiddle doesn’t belong over a reggae beat.”

“The bass is where these two traditions meet. Bluegrass walks and reggae sits back — once we stopped asking the low end to do both at once, the songs opened up,” said Lance Frantzich, Principal, RootsGrass Records.

Track list: “AI Music Is For Me,” “Where You Want It To Go,” “Dragonfly,” “High Mountain Wisdom,” “The Bill Comes Due,” “Good Enough For Me,” “Platitudes,” “A Wild Thing Woke.”

“A Call to the Wild” is available on all major platforms, with free previews and MP3 downloads at TheHowlersBand.com. Full tracks, lyric sheets and interviews are available to press on request.

About The Howlers

The Howlers are a California roots project built on a simple collision: bluegrass instrumentation and reggae rhythm. Their debut album, “A Call to the Wild,” is eight tracks of banjo, fiddle, and mountain harmony riding an island groove. The lyrics are human-written; the recordings were realized using AI production tools. “A Call to the Wild” is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and all major streaming platforms. More at TheHowlersBand.com and youtube.com/@HowlersBand.

About RootsGrass Records

RootsGrass Records is an independent label and an imprint of The Storytellers Band, LLC, releasing roots music that honors tradition without being bound by it. “A Call to the Wild” is its debut release. The label was founded by Scott Diehl, Lance Frantzich, and Michael Garcia. Deep roots. New directions. More at rootsgrassrecords.com.

Scott Diehl
RootsGrass Records
info@rootsgrassrecords.com
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