Since musician Luke Bell died in 2022, his friends and family have worked constantly to make sure that his memory, artistic spirit, and legacy will continue on.
First came establishing the Luke Bell Memorial Affordable Counseling Program, where royalties from his works are filtered to make mental health treatments more readily accessible in his home state of Wyoming.
Then The King Is Back, a collection of previously unreleased tracks, shepherded by his mother Carol and sister Jane. And on Tuesday, two of Bell’s good friends, the songwriters Zach Schmidt and Jackie Berkley (a.k.a. the husband-and-wife duo known as Golden Everything), release their new single “White Buick,” a tender tribute to a man gone too soon. From their forthcoming EP Down Time, out July 17th, it charts Bell’s joy, talent, and enduring free spirit: “You’re not afraid of a hard day’s work, or howling at the moon,” they sing in gentle harmony.
“His energy was infectious,” Schmidt told Rolling Stone about Bell in 2025. The two met shortly after Schmidt moved to Nashville from a stint in Pittsburgh, and they became fast friends and collaborators. “It was kind of unrivaled in everything he did, and it translated to his music.”
Schmidt and Bell’s family worked to capture that energy at last year’s tribune to Bell during AmericanaFest, and it was then that Schmidt was moved to write “White Buick.” All proceeds from the song will benefit the Luke Bell Memorial Affordable Counseling Program, and a live performance video will also direct funds toward the organization.
Schmidt detailed the origin of “White Buick” in a lengthy Instagram post. “Luke was my advocate. Every chance he had to introduce me to someone, sing my praise or throw me on stage to sing, he would do it,” he wrote. “It’s safe to say that without Luke, I wouldn’t know most of the people in my life, including my wife.”
