Our annual Summer Stars series features a variety of groups making the rounds on the festival circuit. Today we feature Futurebirds. Last week we checked in with Tea Leaf Green and moe..

“Fat Possum was always on our radar,” explains Carter King, multi-instrumentalist for the white-hot Athens, Ga.-based psychedelic country outfit Futurebirds when asked about the decision to release their sophomore set Baba Yaga on the Oxford, Miss.-taste-making label. “We were sifting through a bunch of [prospects] that didn’t feel right at all when Fat Possum came out of the fog.”

Needless to say, the group’s guitar-driven brand of spacey barstool twang fits right alongside the likes of Spiritualized, Jimbo Mathus and Junior Kimbrough in the Possum posse – thanks, in large part, to their scorching live show, which promises to light up many a stage this summer.

“Ultimately, we focus on playing our music our way, keeping in mind the landscape around us,” guitarist Thomas Johnson asserts. “If we’re playing on a beer-soaked stage at 1 a.m., we probably aren’t going to whip out a six-minute slow-burner, whereas at a nice theater with great acoustics, we might play songs with more subtleties. It’s a delicate balance.”

Futurebirds have road-tripped consistently since forming in 2008, sharing the stage with fellow Athens tour dogs like Widespread Panic, Dead Confederate and Drive-By Truckers along the way.

“When we’re playing to a whole new audience, we want to leave an impression,” says Johnson. “Through our days of playing dives and bars, playing an all-out rager was the natural way we did that. However, as we’ve grown as a band, we’ve been slowly realizing that we can ease up a little during a show without losing the interest of the crowd.”

Album for a Hot Summer Night: Famous L. Renfroe, Children

Summer Drink: Slushie

Festival Stops: Mountain Jam, Bonnaroo, High Sierra, more.