\n<\/p>\n
\n\tEver try writing an album in a van? Ask Briscoe<\/a> about that. The rising folk-rock band from Austin established itself as a surefire sellout in the honky-tonk scene of the Texas Hill Country<\/a>, before landing high-profile tours with Noah Kahan and Dave Matthews Band. While navigating all of that quick-paced travel, they also made a record.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI think you can feel the fact that a lot of these songs were written in a moving vehicle,\u201d says Philip Lupton, who fronts Briscoe alongside Truett Heintzelman. He\u2019s talking about Heat of July<\/em>, Briscoe\u2019s second studio album, a 12-track collection of tracks born on the road, which drops on Friday. \u201cSaving Grace,\u201d an album highlight, is out now as a single with an accompanying video.<\/p>\n \n\tBack in late August, Lupton and Heintzelman caught their breaths after soundcheck at Sagebrush, the venerable dancehall on the far south side of Austin. A few hours later, they would take the stage in front of a sold-out crowd of 300.<\/p>\n \n\tThis is Briscoe\u2019s home turf, where the banjo and saxophone they incorporate into their high-energy live show resonates effortlessly with fans who came to dance and those who came to scream and shout. Heat of July<\/em> is as much about leaving a comfort zone as it is about seeing the world through a windshield \u2014\u00a0something the group will experience again in late October when they hit the West Coast for a long stretch.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cPart of being on the road, one of the really amazing aspects of driving around in a Ford Transit van, is that you really get to see everything,\u201d Heintzelman says. \u201cBut at the same time, with as much as we were gone, it left a lot of time for reflection on being away from home.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe idea of home is as important to Heat of July<\/em> as the road-dogging that inspired it.<\/p>\n