Sugarland's Kristian Bush has a new rock 'n' roll project with brother and former Train member Brandon Bush and jam band veteran Benji Shanks. It's called Dark Water, and the trio's self-titled debut album, out Nov. 15, already draws comparisons to some of the Grateful Dead's country-rock material.

Billboard recently unveiled album track "Paint It Blue." It sounds like a cross between the Dead's American Beauty album and some of Tom Petty's country-leaning materials, paired with metaphysical storytelling

"I started playing around with this fun idea that there’s an apparition, this ghost that comes to you in your dream and she's telling you how to make it through all the troubles that are going on in your life," Bush tells Billboard about Dark Water's debut song. "She's like, 'Look, man, it's going to be OK,' and she's doing it in all sorts of interesting rhymes and thoughts and just keeps upping the game. It's a little bit of a puzzle, lyrically, that unfolds the more you listen to it."

Despite straying a little from his country roots, Kristian's new band should appeal to fans of his ongoing work with fellow Sugarland member Jennifer Nettles.

"I don't think this will surprise any of them, that it's happening," he tells Billboard. "I think after all this time they know that, creatively, I'm rolling all the time. But I think they'll be surprised by how much they love it. It's music that has a message, which is something that we [Sugarland] do, too, and I know they like that."

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