Kevin Morby: the leftover that gets its own summer
A non-album single from the Aaron Dessner sessions for Little Wide Open, with Justin Vernon on guitar, held back until mid September.
BY JOLT Staff · SEP 16 2026 · 1 min readPBJ is a remnant from the Little Wide Open sessions that acts like it possesses the final warm week of September. Kevin Morby penned it around a friend's phrase, and it's lighter than most of what he puts out.
He's now eight solo albums deep, from Harlem River in 2013 to Little Wide Open in May, with earlier stints in Woods and the Babies before all that. Aaron Dessner produced Little Wide Open, which came out on Dead Oceans. PBJ is drawn from those same sessions, saved for September 16.
“An end of summer song. Listen to it with the windows down…and the air conditioning up.”
The band remains the same: Dessner on bass and guitar, Justin Vernon on guitar, Andrew Barr on drums, Morby on vocals and extra guitar. He directed the video, featuring Katie Crutchfield, Caleb Hearon and Tara Raghuveer.
It’s jangly and effortless, a singer-songwriter tune with a band backing it instead of a production. Morby borrows the title from a friend’s expression for driving with the windows down while the air conditioning is still blasting, and the song concerns that and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in all its variations. Nothing lands heavier than it has to.
It is for Morby fans first, and for anyone who wants another end-of-summer song once summer has ended. The soaring, heartfelt indie rock of Little Wide Open is recognizable in the vocals.
What doesn’t work is the scale surrounding it. An ice cream flavor, a hat, a burger, a cookie, a Memphis drink: the celebration is larger than the song, and Vernon and Dessner are here to deliver a joke. The playing is warm. Nothing pushes.
A 3.5. A leftover possessing better manners than most singles, and it will sound finest precisely where it was written for: windows down, air conditioning up.
