Mike Gordon will release his debut solo effort August 26 on Ropedope Records. The album, titled Inside In, is nearly four years in the works and was originally intended to coincide with the release of Gordon’s experimental film Outside Out. The album features drummer Russ Lawton, multi-instrumentalist James Harvey and pedal steel guitarist Gordon Stone. There are also guest appearances by drummer Jon Fishman, banjoist Bela Fleck, trumpeter Craig Johnson, guitarist Col. Bruce Hampton, percussionist Future Man, fiddler Buddy Cage, trumpeter Jared Slomoff, drummer Gabe Johnson and vocalist Heloise Williams.

“I’ve had a couple different [songwriting] processes,” Gordon told Jambands.com during the mixing sessions in October. “When I did the stuff for the Inside In album, I had a bunch of different instruments and I had a band and actually a lot of stuff was written from bass and drum jams where me and a drummer would just play and later I would write a song to that. So I edited the jams into songs.”

Gordon also wishes to remind fans that his “cat Rupert was in the room for all phases of the recordings. He is a wonderful cat.”