to join; he instantly agreed. McCauley had previously tried to get Dennis' half brother Chris Ryan, an old high school friend and local bass player who had played with Stefan Couture And The Campfire Orchestra, to join the band full-time, but he had been unable to join due to finishing off a music degree at Providence College. Following a nationwide tour and having finished his degree, Chris Ryan finally joined. War Elephant The band released their debut album War Elephant on September 4, 2007, via Jana Hunter's Houston-based Feow! Records. Recorded prior to the arrival of Dennis and Chris Ryan, neither appear on the album, with McCauley playing most of the instruments with help from Brian McOmber from Dirty Projectors, Nat Baldwin and James Falzone. The album featured "These Old Shoes," a cover of a song by Chris Paddock. After the initial CD run sold out by January 2008 and a dispute over royalty payments arose, the album was left out of print, leaving the band touring with no proper copies of the album to sell. McCauley would sometimes burn copies of the album on CD-R to sell at gigs. Born on Flag Day In August 2008, the three piece expanded their lineup with lead guitarist Andrew Tobiassen, from Florida. In September 2008, the band recorded their second album Born on Flag Day at Yellow House Studios in Baltimore, Maryland and signed to Partisan Records after the label's owner Tim Putnam saw the band play at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn and offered them a record deal a few weeks later at a gig in Providence. Partisan first re-released War Elephant on November 11, 2008, with Born on Flag Day released on June 23, 2009. The album received wide critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone proclaiming it the "Country-Rock break-through of the Year". The band continued to tour the US extensively, and eventually toured Europe. McCauley felt that while listeners didn't have to listen to his "hack drumming and bass playing" as on War Elephant, the band were underrehearsed and that the album was rushed. The Black Dirt Sessions In January 2009, the band entered Black Dirt Studios in upstate New York with producer Jason Meagher to record every song they had left that was unrecorded for the band to "see what we could make out of it". The first release from the sessions was the More Fuel for the Fire