more eaze, aka producer/multi-instrumentalist mari rubio, has announced new album sentence structure in the country, out March 20th, 2026. sentence structure in the country is a definitive statement of the matchless quality of more eaze’s skill as player and musical thinker. The album relishes the ecstatic in performance and collaboration with an inviting wit and incisive compositions, imbuing tenderness, frustration, and joy into each passage.
Along with the album’s announcement, rubio has shared the album’s vulnerable first single “bad friend.” rubio explains how the piece came together:
“Like a lot of the songs on this album, this has sat with me for years and taken many different shapes. I couldn’t really leave this one alone. It just kept coming back in my head. I hadn’t played it in years, and then when I played Chicago with Alan Sparhawke, I made a last minute decision to come back to this song as a sort of comfort, and that opened me up to reconsidering the arrangement and form. The key for unlocking it was the pedal steel: it’s kind of about playing it in a non-traditional way, strumming it more like a normal guitar rather than using traditional pedal steel moves but the main riff of the song is built largely about idiomatic idiosyncrasies/quirks with my pedal steel and electronics setup.
“To some extent this song lyrically is about knowing you shouldn’t have romantic feelings for a friend but it’s also about not doing a very good job hanging out with people and generally feeling like an alien. Sort of about having trouble in Texas dealing with my social circles, especially the last few years I was there.”
The title is an acknowledgement of the vernacular that shaped rubio’s musical production. As Coltrane said, “It all has to do with it.” rubio grew up playing fiddle in traditional folk and country tunes, and while sentence structure in the country playing is entirely different, her reverence for the evolution of folk forms and her playing remain imbued with those experiences. Informing her production choices were rubio’s well-chosen collaborators: Wendy Eisenberg on electric guitar, piano and voice, Henry Earnest on electric guitar, Alice Gerlach on cello, Jade Guterman on acoustic guitar, and Ryan Sawyer on drums. rubio explains how her collaborators helped sculpt the album’s sound: “There are ways Jade or Wendy choose to voice chords that are not how I’d play them in this context, but that’s kind of the point. Their voices redefine what I’m making but also help me define my own.”
sentence structure in the country centers on using the vernacular of all of these revelations and perspectives through experience in a new context. The album’s compositions evolved over a number of years. Each iteration is informed by both the context of rubio’s performances and the musicians she elected to perform them with. With variable speeds, the piece’s structure developed into their recorded arrangements as rubio followed where they seemed to want to go. The album is a collection of compositions, each beautifully realized, self-contained worlds. rubio’s dexterous, tasteful arranging lays bare her influences and obsessive fascinations with remarkable congruency while foregoing any sense of indulgence. Her music holds a density not only in the lush compositions and embellishing flourishes, but also for those moments of spare, minimalist beauty. sentence structure in the country is a textural marvel, a mosaic of ethereal electronics and loamy acoustics sculpted around deeply moving, enduring songs.
