Over the last two decades, the band has released five albums, hosted the long-running “Wild Ponies Happy Hour” radio show on Nashville’s WSM, led nine annual distillery tour Trail Rides for fans and friends, and garnered devoted musical audiences all over the world. Their live shows, which have often totaled into the hundreds per year, are notoriously personal. Whether it’s Doug and Telisha with their acoustic guitar and upright bass, respectively, or a full rock ‘n’ roll outfit with drums and electric guitar, everyone is welcome at a Wild Ponies show and in their community.

Dreamers was recorded and produced by singer-songwriter Brandy Zdan, with co-writes with Chely Wright, Ben Glover, and Nora Jane Struthers, and features guest musicians The Sea The Sea (Chuck and Mira Costa) and Nashville pedal steel legend Fats Kaplin. It is Wild Ponies’ most ambitious record yet. These 11 songs explore what exists beyond the traditional nuclear family and detail the joys and heartbreaks they’ve experienced as part of their journey to build the life - and family - they wanted.

Years ago, on tour in Germany, a fan asked Doug and Telisha a question that stuck with them: Where are your dreams now? Not what are your dreams, but where. “Our dreams are everywhere, buzzing around like energetic bees,” they explain. “They’re deep in the earth, sprawled and gnarly like the roots of an ancient Catawba tree. They live in and out of our own bodies, making their way to the backyard in the most unconventional way and pulling to stand only minutes after being born. At times, our dreams are hard to wrangle — a wild pony on the Carolina coast wandering the dunes.” 

These dreams have manifested in song, captured in musical gallops and emotional wallops. By growing both their nuclear family and wider community, especially in LGBTQIA+ spaces, Doug and Telisha have come to the realization that time may be finite, but love is infinite. “Our understanding of love has changed. It’s expanded. It’s huge and vast and so hard to hold. It spills over in ways it couldn’t have before — the way Iris topples over and laughs with her whole body at the sound of a few strums of a guitar. Or the way River croaks out a tiny whisper of ‘more hug’ before going to bed,” Doug and Telisha say. “Singing together on a dusty stage, feeling our voices do that thing that we don’t understand but that feels so good and weaves them into one. Looking out over a little crowd of people to our partner, Laura, with Iris strapped to her chest. She’s squatting down with her arms around River, and they’re smiling back at us. Our little family. Our big family. That’s where our dreams are now.”