Shane Weisman - Better Luck Tomorrow

“I spent all my 20’s writing songs I don’t want.”

That single line hit me harder than anything else, and it became the spark that set this entire album in motion. Instead of digging through the hundreds of songs I’d written over the years, trying to pick the “best” twelve, I did what most artists don’t attempt until their third or fourth record: I ignored everything. I wiped the slate clean and started fresh. Every song on Better Luck Tomorrow was written and recorded specifically for this project—new, raw, and pulled directly from the place I was in emotionally… and honestly, still am.

A huge part of the DNA of this record comes from the artists who shaped me. I’m a major Bruce Springsteen fan—onstage, offstage, and everywhere in between. To me, he’s the greatest role model a young artist could have. I’ve spent my whole life studying his music: the massive, heartfelt productions, the static crackle of raw emotion, the way every lyric feels like it’s carved out of truth. I didn’t sit down trying to make “a Springsteen album”—because no matter how hard you try to sound like someone else, it always ends up sounding like you—but some of his world naturally seeped into mine. The glockenspiel textures, electric guitars pushed front and center, raw and real lyrics with nothing held back, and an emotional music bed built to hold the weight of everything I needed to say.

I grew up on classic rock—The Beatles, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan—and later found bands like Wilco, Dawes, and the Avett Brothers. All of that lives inside these songs. Some tracks spilled out of me in five minutes; others I agonized over. Sometimes I opened my computer with no idea what I was about to make and trusted whatever showed up. But all those influences, all those years of listening and learning, thread themselves through this album. Together, they make up the sound of Better Luck Tomorrow. Together, they make up the sound of Shane Weisman.

The thread that ties the entire record together is luck—wanting it, chasing it, doubting it, and trying to believe it might finally show up. After spending most of my twenties trying to figure out who I was as an artist while simultaneously teaching myself how to produce, this album became the moment everything finally aligned. Better Luck Tomorrow doesn’t just summarize the last decade of my life; it holds the weight of everything I struggled with, everything I questioned, and everything I refused to give up on.

This is a concept album. Throughout the tracklist, you’ll hear recurring phrases, mirrored themes, and different versions of myself—characters of me—trying to navigate the same storm. The songs trace the intersections of family, career, love, identity, and the parts of life that make you feel like you’ve lost everything and have no map for what comes next. At the same time, there’s this tiny, stubborn spark that keeps pushing forward, whispering that maybe tomorrow really could be better. It’s an album full of questions searching for answers, and maybe—just maybe—the answer has been right in front of me the entire time, waiting for me to notice.

I wrote and recorded the entire album alone in my house in Nashville over about six weeks (other than “Smoking in the Rain” which was recorded live at Sam Philips recordings in Memphis, TN).  I honestly have no idea where it came from. It felt like the songs were hand-delivered straight into my brain. I locked myself in my little home studio, smoked a bunch of weed, and fell into the most creative headspace I’ve ever been in. After years of feeling like I couldn’t quite figure out how to write or record the music I heard in my head, something finally clicked.

I’ll never forget getting in my car to listen to the album front to back for the first time. I just started bawling—full-on, uncontrollable tears—not because I was sad, but because I finally felt connected to the music I made. It was the first time I felt like I truly captured who I am.

Timing really is everything.

And for the first time in my life, it feels like luck is finally on its way.