Singer-songwriter John R. Miller has announced the release of his fifth studio album, The Great Unknowing. The album will be out on physical formats on 5th June 2026 and digitally on 17th July via Rounder Records. The new album finds Miller at a creative turning point, expanding beyond his americana roots into a richer, more exploratory sonic landscape, while maintaining his raw storytelling.
After a year of demoing at home and testing the songs on the road, Miller knew he needed a change of scenery for inspiration, and found that at Leon Russell’s legendary Church Studio in Tulsa. The sessions blended live performances with layered multi-tracking, striking a balance between spontaneity and detail. Co-produced alongside longtime collaborator Adam Meisterhans, Miller assembled a band of celebrated Tulsa players, including Paddy Ryan, Aaron Boehler, Muskrat Jones, and John Fullbright.
“It was exciting and a little nerve-racking,” Miller admits. “But collaborating with new people pushed everything forward. By the end of the first day in Tulsa, I realised we had stumbled into something that felt pretty special. Immediately, the gears started turning,” he said. “Tulsa is one of the great legacy-bearing cities of American music—J.J. Cale is one of my all-time favourites, and Shelter Records was based there. So much of what I love in music history happened right around that block.” You can pre-save/ pre-order The Great Unknowing here.
The first track off the album, Tollbooth has been released with its accompanying video initially via Under The Radar. It is a live rendition of the track produced and recorded by The Church Studio In Session. The video captures the song in raw form as Miller performs in front of a live audience. The track was inspired by the changes in scenery while touring on the road. He explains, “You tend to explore that territory in songs when you’re doing it a lot, but some of them, like ‘Tollbooth’, seem to be more about witnessing American decay. It can be hard to notice changes as they happen when you’re living in a place, but when you revisit the same places over time, you get a sense for how the landscape is shifting, both literally and figuratively.”
