One of Leon Bridges’ most underrated qualities is his innate skill as a collaborator.
The Fort Worth-based, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter has built up as impressive a resume as a guest artist as he has taking center stage. Everyone from Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves and Diplo to Khruangbin, John Mayer and Luke Combs has tapped Bridges over the last decade for a reliable dose of his honeyed pipes.
Add to the impressive list another act, the Swiss-formed instrumental duo Hermanos Gutierrez, which enlisted Bridges to sing on the pair’s inaugural single with English-language vocals, as heard on the lustrous, sensual “Elegantly Wasted,” which drops today, complete with a video filmed at Oak Cliff’s Texas Theatre.
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“While Hermanos Gutierrez and I were on tour together, we just vibed,” Bridges said in a statement. “At the end of the run, we were inspired to work together.”
Of the evocative clip, its director, Matt Muir said in a statement: “I wanted this music video to feel like a cinematic memory — loose and intimate, but a bit clandestine. The music of both Hermanos Gutierrez and Leon Bridges has such patience and emotional depth, it felt right to create a setting where that mood could take shape visually.”
Estevan and Alejandro Gutierrez have been long-time friends and collaborators with Bridges, opening up for him on multiple occasions, including his triumphant, sold-out headlining set at Dickies Arena last fall.
It was not long after that November show, in fact, that the three musicians found themselves in a Nashville studio, alongside producer Dan Auerbach.
“We had a window of maybe four hours before our show at the Ryman that night, but managed to finish a song we’d been working on for months,” the brothers said in a statement. “Leon showed up, and he heard the track for the first time at the studio together with Dan Auerbach, the whole team of Easy Eye Sound and Leon’s crew. He took a microphone, and he just started to sing a melody over it. It sounded like an angel.
“We all expected him to crush it with his first note, and he did. And he wasn’t even singing lyrics; he was just singing whatever felt natural. It was such an incredible moment, and then he got together with Dan, and they wrote the lyrics.
“This is the product of being on tour together for seven weeks. Touring is fun, but sometimes it’s like you’re on a nonstop journey. You can feel that in the music and in the sound. There’s something really happy, but also a bit nostalgic.”
Bridges is currently on tour in Europe through the end of the month. He’ll return Stateside for a run of dates at the end of August, reconnecting with fellow Texan Charley Crockett for a run of “The Crooner & the Cowboy” dates which wraps up Sept. 23 in Austin at the Moody Center.
Preston Jones is a North Texas freelance writer and regular contributor to KXT. Email him at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky (@prestonjones.bsky.social).Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
Source: https://kxt.org/2025/07/leon-bridges-hermanos-gutierrez-join-forces-on-new-single-elegantly-wasted/
