All Across This Land, the title of Blitzen Trapper’s new record, evokes a feeling of nostalgia for blue-collar America, where high school football reigns supreme and the local watering hole is always packed with regulars. There’s been a workingman’s element to the Portland, Ore.-based outfit’s music from the start and the band, led by Eric Earley, has paid their dues over the last 15 years while maintaining a steady output of music and an even steadier touring schedule. All Across This Land, the group’s eighth effort and first since 2013’s VII, offers another whiff of the feel-good, red-white and-blue campfire sing-alongs that have defined Blitzen Trapper since their aughts breakthrough.

Blitzen Trapper records are truly snapshots of the band at that current moment, encompassing the stylistic tendencies of the group on and off the stage. During the promotional cycle for VII, Earley dubbed that album a “futuristic hip-hop, country, rock hybrid,” which was eventually creatively shortened to “hillbilly gangster,” combining influences from artisits like John Cale, Townes Van Zandt and Wu-Tang Clan. It was certainly an odd mix, but that type of experimentation and honesty has allowed Blitzen Trapper to naturally evolve over the years while staying true to themselves—the ultimate necessity to longevity.

The ensemble—which Earley, guitarist/ keyboardists Erik Menteer and Marty Marquis, drummer Brian Adrian Koch, bassist Michael Van Pelt and keyboardist Drew Laughery formed in 2000 under the name Garmonbozia—had another life exploring the proggy, psychedelic sound the Pacific Northwest was known for around the turn of the millennium. (They formally changed the name to Blitzen Trapper in 2003, and Laughery parted with the group in 2010.) Over time, Blitzen Trapper honed in on a more polished indie folk-rock and caught the ear of the blogosphere, ultimately earning them a record deal with Sub Pop during a comeback period for the famed Seattle label that included signing acts like The Postal Service, Fleet Foxes and The Shins. (Earley notes that they “got in by the tail end of the record sales era.”)

Blitzen Trapper scored their big break with 2008’s Furr, which firmly placed them at the forefront of the Americana resurgence and helped turn them into festival darlings, with high-profile appearances at Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo. Somewhere along the line, Blitzen Trapper were branded as part of a new class of 21st-century roots-rock acts, but they’ve always added a few stylistic twists that have flipped their sound, and genre, on its head. 2010’s Destroyer of the Void explored more psychedelic textures, harkening back to their days as Garmonbozia in Portland—an effort that also landed them onstage with Stephen Malkmus and Pavement at an All Tomorrow’s Parties festival. They quickly followed that left-field release with American Goldwing, a personal offering from Earley released in 2011. Goldwing’s straight-ahead, 1970s, rootsy vibe meshed perfectly with Wilco, who invited the group on tour that year for a run of shows, an experience that Earley reflects on fondly.

“I’m always taking things from the different bands we tour with,” he says. “It’s really cool to watch bands like Wilco or Brandi Carlile who have a great connection to their fans. Brandi’s energy during her shows is really cool. It’s just a general matter of realizing how important a live show is and giving it a lot of thought.”

With an established fan base and reputation, Blitzen Trapper found it necessary to move on from Sub Pop for their next album, VII, opting to join Vagrant Records. The foray into the aforementioned “hillbilly gangster” sound proved to be one of the band’s most daring moves yet, upping the ante on reimagining modern Americana and folk rock. Blitzen Trapper spent the better part of a decade cutting their teeth on the road and in the studio, with Earley constantly staying in tune with his interests and allowing the band to evolve accordingly.

All Across This Land’s roots lie in, interestingly enough, an unexpected cover of Neil Young’s 1972 record, Harvest, which the band released for Record Store Day in 2015. “I think there’s a certain simplicity to that record that I kind of wanted to mimic,” says Earley, the band’s chief songwriter and undisputed leader, during a swing through large clubs and theaters last fall. “That record is so simple, there’s not anything going on really, but there’s just good songwriting. I just wanted to write like that in a way—strip it down to the essential things.”

The band briefly toured around the release, making stops at intimate City Winery locations in New York, Chicago and Nashville, Tenn., where they performed Harvest live in its entirety along with a selection of Blitzen Trapper tunes. For the first time, Earley didn’t sing lead on all the tunes: Marquis tackled “A Man Needs a Maid” and Koch stepped into the spotlight on “The Needle and the Damage Done.”

In retrospect, those small moves were the first clues that Earley had a more band-oriented record in mind this time around.

With All Across This Land, Earley says that the band experimented with “sounds we hadn’t really used before,” until ultimately deciding that the best route was to return to the slick, polished, ‘70s-rock sound that appeared on some of their earlier records.

“It’s a different way to treat the song,” he says of his aim to craft a more “classic pop” record. “The production lines are definitely better, or generally more modern. And I just wanted to do that because I’d never really done that before.”

He says Harvest’s simplicity was another influence on the sessions and led him to revisit some of his favorite albums from artists like R.E.M., The Replacements and Uncle Tupelo.

“This record is very first chorus, then a solo here and there,” Earley says of the similarities between All Across This Land and those classic rock albums. He also refers to Menteer’s playing as a driving force behind most of the material on the album. “I wanted to do something more classic, almost like a pop record.”

All Across This Land kicks off with the title track, a compact nugget that instantly screams “mainstream rock record.” Lyrically, Earley offers up some relatable stories about small-town living and travels across the country (“All my trials, won’t you take my hand, gonna raise it up all across this land”), and, all the while, Menteer drives the song with a huge riff that recalls the type of infectious hook found on a Springsteen record. It’s not quite arena rock, but it’s just enough to get your head bobbing.

Earley hits on his best Tom Petty impression on the album’s second song, “Rock and Roll (Was Made for You),” relating rock and roll’s integration into himself like the “track marks up and down” his arms. The album’s 10 songs follow the theme established by the first two—all tight, four-minute rockers showcasing the seasoned storytelling of Earley.

While this record may initially seem sunnier than most of Blitzen Trapper’s past work, Earley still works in some personal and emotional lyrics, like the notion that “the things you love, they can do the most harm.” And on the bluesy stomper “Lonesome Angel,” he tells the story of a lost soul traveling the open roads, ultimately heading back to the one that “makes things right for my soul.”

As for how the songs are progressing on tour, Earley says: “When they get on the stage, there’s a good flow, and it also works with all the material from Goldwing or Furr.”

The members of Blitzen Trapper recently celebrated their 15th anniversary, and as they step into a new year, Earley stresses the importance of a band’s live show in 2016—something he learned from those barn-burning stints supporting groups like Wilco, Pavement, Drive-By Truckers and many others.

Not only are Blitzen Trapper a hard working band, but they’re also one that supports independent initiatives and causes—namely, Record Store Day. It’s a unique footnote to the band’s story, which includes a wide variety of compelling musical releases. While Live Harvest was a RSD exclusive release, they have also recorded covers of Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” and consistently offer reissues of their own material.

“You can get so many things for free these days, so it’s always good to sort of just get people to actually buy the product and not steal them or copy them or whatever,” Earley says about the band’s Record Store Day efforts.

Shortly before they released their take on Harvest, Blitzen Trapper also contributed to a Bloodshot Records’ 20th anniversary compilation. Earley and Co. recorded a folksy take on Ryan Adams’ “To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)” from the Jacksonville, N.C.-bred singer-songwriter’s debut solo effort, Heartbreaker. While Earley admits that the label chose the song for him, he still describes it as a “cool” tune. “I didn’t really listen to that record that much, but I think that record is great.”

Earley is soft-spoken and humble, noting that he absorbs a lot of material from other bands, but admitting that he doesn’t necessarily offer advice from those coming up in the business. For him, it goes back to the grassroots mentality that kicked the band into gear 15 years ago: “Try and survive and try to make your live shows as sweet as you can because that’s the only way that you can make any money.”