Seasoned singer-songwriter and music producer most known for being Stevie Van Zandt’s music director Marc Ribler has released a new album entitled “The Whole World Awaits You.”

The album, which is Ribler’s third solo album, consists of 12 tracks that were written between 2005 and 2020. This includes “Shattered,” which was released in February as the album’s first single and was called “a driving East Coast heartbreak rocker oozing West Coast Laurel Canyon style” by American Songwriter.

Ribler recorded most of the tracks in February 2017, but early in the COVID-19 pandemic, he was compelled to finish what he had started. An overarching theme of the album is hopefulness, a theme that complements the collective struggle of the current phase of the pandemic. 

“I started to feel that the world was not coming to an end, more that it was just a major healing crisis,” said Ribler. 

Ribler said that one of the album’s tracks, “Manzanillo,” is a “true pandemic song and production.” It was recorded independently by Ribler and his collaborators from their own studios, trading recordings over the internet. 

Van Zandt co-produced the album after hearing Ribler’s early mixes and released it under his own independent record label, Wicked Cool Records.

“Working with Stevie feels like a gift for all the years of blood, sweat and tears,” Ribler said. “It’s like taking a master class on how to conduct yourself musically, professionally and personally in a business that will chew you up and spit you out without thinking twice.”

Striving in the music business since he was 14, Marc Ribler has also been a guitarist for multiple artists including Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, a co-writer for Mitch Malloy, and more. 

The album can be streamed here.