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Ana Egge On Tour With Iris DeMent

yMusic Track "Zebras" Included on New York Times Playlist

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Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos.

A seven-beat rhythm percolates through “Zebras,” a minimalistic but eventful romp by the chamber sextet yMusic. The rhythm hops from key clicks on a bass clarinet to pizzicato strings; it’s juxtaposed with sighing melody lines and hints of a circus band, making the most of its three-and-a-half minutes. JON PARELES

Read the full article HERE

On New Album YMUSIC The Widely Influential Ensemble Continue To Reimagine The Chamber Group For The 21st Century

15 Years On, yMusic Continue To Reimagine The Chamber Group For The 21st Century On New Album YMUSIC (May 5 / StorySound Records)

Known For Acclaimed Collaborations With Paul Simon, Ben Folds, Dirty Projectors + More, yMusic Carve Unique Compositional Shapes On Album’s Nine Original Pieces

Since forming in New York in 2008, yMusic has distinguished itself as a thoroughly modern chamber group, defying orthodoxy and paving a new path for ambitious, genre-fluid young musicians. Through the precision and virtuosity of its playing and its collaborations with an assortment of acclaimed artists — including renowned composers like Caroline Shaw, Son Lux, and Nico Muhly, beloved songwriters like Paul Simon, Ben Folds, John Legend, St. Vincent’s Annie Clark, Bruce Hornsby, and ANOHNI, and indie rock groups like Dirty Projectors, The Tallest Man On Earth, and The Staves — yMusic have constantly challenged themselves to contort into new shapes and, as a result, have built a singularly rewarding body of work.

Fifteen years into a varied and respected career, today yMusic announce YMUSIC, a new album due out May 5th on StorySound Records. YMUSIC marks another creative milestone for the group: Instead of interpreting other artists’ compositions or building upon the works of others, YMUSIC finds the group focused on discovering an artistic voice all their own. This is a groundbreaking album from a group of musicians who, over the past decade and a half, have mind-melded through rhythm, melody, harmony, and artistic impulse — both a culmination of their alchemic artistry and a fresh, bold adventure into group composition.

Today, yMusic share the album’s dreamily percussive lead single “Zebras.” Says the group about the track: “This was inspired, at first, by the sound of key clicks on the bass clarinet. The song goes back and forth between a “big 7” and “little 7” feel, meaning that the song can be counted in either a fast or slow seven beats. The title came from some stand-in, nonsense lyrics Alex wrote along with the ascending melody, and we got attached to calling the track "Zebras." We love the anthemic end, as well as the eventual triumph of Hideaki’s bass line."

Watch the video for “Zebras,” directed by Jeremy Robins, HERE

The nine pieces on YMUSIC serve as a natural extension of the lessons yMusic have learned through years of collaboration — all of the songs were created together, sometimes at in-person jam sessions, but more often virtually over the course of the pandemic. Each song is a relatively concise statement that explores disparate compositional territory, like a collection of short stories linked more by theme than by setting.

Throughout its runtime, YMUSIC delivers moments of sublime mystery and complicated resolution: Opening track, “Baragon” weaves a web of rhythmically-driven grooves and intoxicating melodies, mixing flashes of earnest beauty into a foreboding collage of timbres. “The Wolf” is almost all gesture, beginning with an amorphous rhythmic buildup and a series of rising chromatic phrases that lend it an alluring tension. Meanwhile “Cloud” sounds like a chamber group performing a deconstructed hip-hop sample; traces of the DNA of past collaborators are evident, but the triumphal union of cascading horns, lissome vocals, and obtuse rhythmic propulsion is all yMusic’s own.

yMusic are Alex Sopp (flutes / voice), Hideaki Aomori (clarinets), CJ Camerieri (trumpet / French horn), Rob Moose (violin), Nadia Sirota (viola), and Gabriel Cabezas (cello). Their virtuosic execution and unique configuration have attracted the attention of high profile collaborators—from Paul Simon to Bill T. Jones to Ben Folds—and inspired original works by some of today’s foremost composers, including Andrew Norman, Caroline Shaw, Nico Muhly, Son Lux, Missy Mazzoli, Marcos Balter, Judd Greenstein and Gabriella Smith. They have performed around the world in venues of all sizes, including the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and Madison Square Garden.

yMusic will embark on live dates throughout the year, beginning with release shows in Los Angeles (May 9 at 2220 Arts + Archives) and New York (May 12 at Public Records). Keep an eye out for more tour dates to be announced soon. 

 

Dan Tepfer New Album Inventions / Reinventions Out March 17

300 Years On, Dan Tepfer Builds New Improvisations and Narratives Within Bach’s Inventions

Way back in 1723, Johann Sebastian Bach composed his Two Part Inventions to serve as keyboard exercises for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. Since then, Bach’s Inventions has become a rite of passage for generations of keyboard players. It’s an essential building block for millions of musicians as they refine their mastery of harmony, rhythm, and technique. It’s no exaggeration to say that much of our modern understanding of music is built upon these exercises.

300 years later, Dan Tepfer — ”a remarkable musician” (The Washington Post) with “a wide-open sensibility as tuned into Bach and Björk as to Monk and Wayne Shorter” (The New York Times) — has taken the architecture of these exercises and used it as a jumping-off point for a new project out March 17 on StorySound: Inventions / Reinventions, an album featuring performances of each of Bach’s beloved 15 Two Part Inventions interleaved in sequence with nine of Tepfer’s own free improvisations in the “missing” keys to create a new full, and fully transporting, 24-key cycle.

Today, Tepfer shares “Improvised Invention In Db Minor.” Says Tepfer: “The first thing I think of when I think about the Inventions is the idea of a conversation between the hands, an idea that turns up a lot in this improvisation. The theme that I heard when I started playing begins in my right hand, but moves quickly to my left, and gets passed continuously between the hands as the improvisation develops. The second thing I think of when I think of the Inventions is rhythm, which supports everything Bach does; yet this improvisation has a 12/8 rhythmic feel that owes more to the Jazz tradition I grew up in than to European classical music.”

Listen to “Improvised Invention In Db Minor” here.

Pre-order Inventions / Reinventions here.

Recorded in nighttime sessions that Tepfer engineered himself in an intimate salon next to the Paris apartment where he grew up, Inventions / Reinventions is not his first foray into improvisation that builds upon Bach’s oeuvre. His 2011 recording Goldberg Variations / Variations saw Tepfer play Bach’s Baroque masterpiece in full and as improvised variations of his own creation. It was an ambitious undertaking that garnered widespread acclaim, with The New York Times calling it “riveting and inspired” and New York Magazine deeming it “elegant, thoughtful, and thrilling.”

On Inventions / Reinventions, Tepfer takes an entirely different creative route, embracing the unique narratives coursing through Bach’s work. Tepfer explains: “With the Goldbergs, my improvisations were essentially playing over chord changes, which is what jazz musicians do every day, but with the Inventions, I’m reacting to something more abstract, to the way Bach engages with storytelling.

Bach’s Inventions are a beautiful example of the difference between surface and subsurface, in that they seem like modest pieces on the surface, but the mechanism underneath is so powerful. And that’s what this project is all about: the subsurface of Bach, the mechanisms at play deep below.”

As audacious as that all sounds, the beauty of Inventions / Reinventions is readily apparent — at no point does it feel contrived or weighed down by its lofty conceptual threads. That this project flows so freely is a testament to Tepfer’s imagination and his creative kinship with Bach. The only thing more impressive, perhaps, is Bach’s continued ability to inspire musicians 300 years on, whether they’re burgeoning students or an intrepid trailblazer like Dan Tepfer.

Says Tepfer: “It’s worth remembering that Bach was most known in his lifetime as an improviser. People traveled long distances, often by foot, to hear him extemporize at the organ or harpsichord. Despite the perfect compositions he left behind, in which it’s difficult to imagine changing a single note, improvisation was at the core of his being. And I hope, 300 years after he composed these pieces for his children and students, that Bach wouldn’t be too offended by a modern improviser making up some new musical stories in the windows he left open.”

Associated Press Reviews Loudon Wainwright III New Album 'Lifetime Achievement'

Wainwright’s new music takes inspiration from turning 75
By DAVID BAUDER August 19, 2022

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NEW YORK (AP) — Loudon Wainwright III points out that the first line of the first song on his first album, released when he was 23, is about aging: “In Delaware when I was younger.”

So it’s no stretch that the folk singer’s first album of new compositions in eight years, “Lifetime Achievement,” is loosely based on turning 75. It’s on sale Friday.

The new song “How Old is 75?,” where he sings, “in five years I’ll be 80. I’ll hear the fat lady,” is one of Wainwright’s signature mixes of humor and poignant observation. Three-quarters of a century is a milestone, not just because it’s a big number, but because he’s now lived longer than his father and mother.

“The aging thing has always been on all of my records,” he said. “But actually, it really applies to me now.”

Over the course of 15 songs, Wainwright sings about pieces of his life scattered in various locales, walking through an old lover’s town, imagining himself at the gates of hell and the perspective of a dog caught in the middle of a divorce.

Singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III is photographed at The Associated Press headquarters, Friday, Aug. 5, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
 

The title cut’s narrator realizes that all of life’s momentary achievements mean little next to love — either from a partner or audience, depending on your interpretation.

And family. Always family.

Anyone who’s listened to the man that Rolling Stone called “the poet laureate of family dysfunction” knows about the competition with his father, his divorces from singers Kate McGarrigle and Suzzy Roche, the damage caused by the distant upbringings of son Rufus and daughter Lucy, both accomplished artists of their own.

Wainwright quips about “a couple of tense Thanksgiving dinners,” but is endlessly drawn to his own life for material, reasoning there will always be listeners who can relate.

“How could I not write about that?” he said. “What’s a better topic than that? I could write about imagining what it’s like to ride the rails or pick cotton. I’m just writing about what happened to me. That started at the very beginning; I wrote my first song about going to boarding school in Delaware.”

“Lifetime Achievement” is essentially Wainwright and his guitar — or banjo on “How Old is 75?” — with adornments added later. He usually performs alone, so starting alone is the approach that he feels fits best in the studio.

Wainwright “was something like an old man even when he was young, so he takes to the subject of aging with grace and insight,” music critic Stephen Deusner wrote in a review of the album for Uncut.

The singer grew up in the New York City suburbs of Westchester County and now lives on the eastern end of Long Island. He jokes about fitting in an interview along with “maintenance visits” to doctors in a trip to the city.

He can remember specifically what made him want to be a performer. At age 7, he sang a song to his mother and her sister, bathed in their adoration, and knew he wanted that feeling again.

Throughout his career, Wainwright has been able to toggle between humor and seriousness in a way uncommon to most songwriters.

The new “Fam Vac” is laugh-out-loud funny: the narrator wants a vacation from, not with, his family. At the same time, the way he sang of feeling adrift following the death of his mother in 2001′s “Homeless” is chilling in its naked emotion.

“I think of myself as a switch-hitter,” he said. “I can do funny, and I can do really down and depressing. I’m goofing on it now, but I can do very serious songs. I decided I can do both and I have done both.”

It can be a tough line to walk. When the novelty song “Dead Skunk” became his first hit in the early 1970s — his only hit, really — that briefly became a trap.

His record company was unenthused when Wainwright suggested his breezy “The Swimming Song” as a new single; they wanted another silly animal song. The last laugh: 50 years later, “The Swimming Song” has more than 17 million plays on Spotify; “Dead Skunk” is at 3.5 million.

Wainwright’s 76th birthday is coming up in a few weeks, right when he’s heading out on his first post-pandemic tour. He’s starting in England, where he generally draws larger audiences than at home.

“I’m so delighted when young people come up to me and say ‘my mom loved your records’ or ‘my grandfather loved your records,’” he said. “And then they say, ‘but I love your records, too.’ That, of course, is the most exciting thing. Then I feel like I’m 22.”

Wainwright never figured he’d be making music this long. While going out on the road is much harder, and Wainwright can see a deadline coming on that part of his career, he expects to write songs as long as inspiration strikes.

“When you start out in show business, or any business ... you have your fantasies about how big it’s going to get, how famous you’re going to get, how much money you’re going to make,” he said. “I had all of those. I hoped that I would make a little more money than I have, but looking back, it’s been great. I got to do what I wanted to do.”

FULL ARTICLE HERE

NPR Fresh Air Review: Loudon Wainwright III goes back to the basics on 'Lifetime Achievement'

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DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, in for Terry Gross. The singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright is known for his intensely autobiographical writing. So it's not surprising that when he recently turned 75, he decided to make a new album that is about trying, and mostly failing, to age gracefully. It's called "Lifetime Achievement." And rock critic Ken Tucker says the album contains Wainwright's characteristic bluntness and honesty, this time about being older.

"Folk music's great confessor"

"Having turned 75, there's an autumnal air to his songs, or perhaps I should say a winter chill.  He's more serene than usual, contemplating mortality"

"Aside from Al Green and Bob Dylan, I can think of few living performers who have thought about life, death and what comes after with as much rigorousness, resignation and gratitude."

Listen to the FULL REVIEW HERE

Debut Solo Album by Vocalist Daisy Press 'You Are the Flower Music From Hildegard von Bingen Vol. 1

StorySound Records Announces You Are the Flower - Music from Hildegard von Bingen - Vol. 1 by New York City Vocalist Daisy Press.

Debut Solo Album Out September 9

July 8, 2022: Today, New York City vocalist Daisy Press has announced her debut solo album, You Are the Flower - Music from Hildegard von Bingen - Vol. 1., which finds her voice in communion with the 12th century composer, Hildegard von Bingen. Daisy’s deeply personal approach breathes new vibrant life into the world and work of the medieval visionary. Along with the announcement, Press has shared the first track off the record, “Viridissima Virga.”

You Are the Flower will be released on September 9 through StorySound Records. To celebrate the album’s release, Daisy will perform at the Catacombs of The Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn from September 7 to 9 as part of the Death of Classical concert series The Angel’s Share. Ticket info available HERE.

Listen to “Viridissima Virga” via YouTube HERE

“This chant goes deep into the sights, sounds, smells, and sensual pleasures of the garden of Mary’s fecundity,” states Press. “It is set syllabically rather than melismatically, so its undertaking as a singer requires constant attention to rapidly moving text. This work does not require big melodic leaps or spinning out long lines; this is one of the more “easy riding” works that settles into a forward-moving storytelling groove, and is one of Hildy’s most iconic offerings to the Virgin.”

As a go-to, in-demand, classically-trained singer with a uniquely fearless and daring persona, for twenty years Daisy has had a career spanning the diverse musical worlds of nightlife, classical new music, and experimental pop. She sang and danced with the band Chromeo on late night TV and the rock festival circuit; she did Steve Reich with So Percussion at Alice Tully Hall and the Barbican in London; the Broadway run of The Devouring nightly featured her arrangement of Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer;” she’s sung Morton Feldman at MOMA and George Crumb at the Miller Theater; in Austria she regularly serves as a soloist with renowned ensembles Klangforum Wien and Phace; at Brooklyn’s noted and notorious House of Yes, Daisy has presided as singer-in-residence and proclaimed high priestess, regularly collaborating with their in-house aerialists, dancers, and circus performers.

Some years back, in the midst of all this activity, a little burnt out, she took some time off to collect herself and returned to music fresh, with a clearer goal in mind. As she began developing what would become You Are the Flower, Daisy knew that she wanted to sing simpler songs at slower paces, with the intention of prioritizing pleasure. “I wanted there to be a lot of beauty that I didn’t have to apologize for,” says Press.

She rekindled her relationship with the works of 12th-century mystic Hildegard von Bingen, which had started years ago in a graduate school program at Oxford under the tutelage of the rock-star theologian nun Sister Benedicta Ward. Back then they had jumped headfirst into the world and headspace of ancient Christian mystics whose visions and writings resonated with an overt, unapologetic language of sensuality. 

“I didn't actually think I’d ever want to do Hildegard's music,” Press notes. “But it was always there, waiting for me.”

After bringing her interpretations of Hildegard’s music into the world for a few years in a multitude of formal and informal performance settings, Daisy started recording these arrangements. “I'm not being precious or holy about it. I'm interested in screwing it up, making historical mistakes in the spirit of joy and exploration... Let's sex it up. Let's make it weird, let's make it wild. Let's make it come from the body.”

Of the six chants on the album, three celebrate St. Ursula and three celebrate the Virgin Mary; they all speak about a devotion to the feminine. St. Ursula was a Scottish princess martyr who chose not to marry and instead preserved her virginity for Christ, and who led a powerful band of women on a European tour proclaiming the virtues and power of virginity. The dramatically tragic and ironic tale of St. Ursula is a centerpiece for You Are the Flower  (and, indeed, also for a notable number of Hildegard's visions and works). 

“What unifies these St. Ursula pieces is virginity, but to me it's not about being sexless, it is a person who belongs to no other person. A woman who belongs to herself. Intellectually, spiritually, physically, emotionally – there is a solitary aspect to it, but so much fecundity comes from it.”

The words of Hildegard speak to reclaimed power, of taking up space and demanding autonomy. Even more so, the ecstasy of the body. Ursula's body. The Virgin Mary’s body. Hildegard’s body of work, and what her voice was for, birthing a unique consciousness into the world.

Hildegard was 42 when she started having visions and started writing. She died in 1179, her work written over that 38-year period. So when Daisy approached the same time in her life, Hildegard seemed like an apt Patron Saint. With You Are the Flower, Daisy puts her own stamp on Hildegard's work. She rejects the notion that she knows anything for certain about the spiritual world, but she still invites listeners to go on this adventure with her, through her music; she has made something rock ’n’ roll, irreverent – a casually intense way of making music, in communion across the centuries with the sainted, celebrated Hildegard.

“In performance art settings I have a fake channeling relationship with her. It's almost a joke, but then it's also real. Who knows if we talk with dead people, but it's still a conversation. I'm starting from a place of not taking it too seriously, and letting it become serious and deep naturally, on its own.”

Track List:

1. Favus Distillans

2. Rubor Sanguinis

3. Viridissima Virga

4. Frondens Virga

5. Spiritui Sancto Honor Sit

6. Ave Maria O Auctrix Vitae

Loudon Wainwright III Comes Back for More With New Album of Original Songs

At age 75 and with 30 albums to his name, singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III could just call it a career — and he kind of thought he had.

But on his birthday last year he thought, “75 is a big number,” and decided he still has more to say. That statement on aging, the state of the world, and much more is coming to our ears on Aug. 19 in the form of his 31st album, Lifetime Achievement, via StorySound Records.

The album’s 15 songs kind of snuck up on him in recent years, according to a press release, and come from a man who found that he still has a little more legacy to leave.

“I remember when I made my first record for Atlantic in 1969. I was always saying, ‘I want it to be a record — not only a recording, but a document that captures a moment.’ I was 21 and very serious, and I thought I’d be dead in four years,” Wainwright says in the announcement. “So I wanted to make something that would last. A testament. Now, fifty years later, I guess I still want to make a testament. I want to write a group of songs and get them down in the best possible way. And I like to think they might last a while.”

The first single from Lifetime Achievement is “Town & Country,” about Wainwright’s return to pandemic-era New York after spending time in the country. With his signature wit, he sings the praises of his city even as he pokes at its flaws.

READ the Article.

PREMIERE: ‘Covid-Pop’ Is a New Genre, and Loudon Wainwright III Brings the Latest Addition

In his new track “Town & Country,” the acerbic troubadour chronicles the thrill of returning to the big city after lockdown–and the fun and dangers that await anyone there.

By David Browne

Say this about the pandemic: There are now enough songs about Covid-19 to make for a pretty eclectic playlist. The track lineup would include T Turbo, Gunna and Young Thug’s chilled-out “Quarantine Clean,” Luke Combs’ forlorn “Six Feet Apart,” and Twenty One Pilots’ kitschy, almost romantic “Level of Concern.” If nothing else, the virus has found common ground between genres that otherwise would have barely much in common.

The next to land is “Town & Country” by longtime singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, veteran observer of his and everyday life as well as patriarch of a musical family that’s given us Rufus, Martha and Lucy. “Town & Country” brings yet another perspective to pandemic pop. Hunkered down most of the last two years on Long Island, Wainwright chronicles his return to New York City and the thrill of encountering renewed life there (at least, to whatever degree that still exists): Sirens! Drunks on the subway! “Behind those masks there’s all those faces,” he sings, “I’m so excited seeing parking spaces.”

Shying away from Wainwright’s often acoustic approach, “Town & Country” is set to a rousing arrangement featuring horns and even guitar and organ solos. You can almost feel the city come back to life in the music. As Wainwright sings, “My dear mother was afraid of the city/She said, ‘Don’t go there Loudie, it’s shady and its shitty’/She was raised in the country, what could that poor woman know?”

But as anyone who’s dined in one of those temporary outdoor restaurant sheds knows all too well, humans aren’t the only creatures lurking in those constructions. And sure enough, Wainwright encounters one of those smaller creatures — “a rat as big as a cat” — underneath the table, and back to the country he goes. With “Town & Country” — part of Wainwright’s forthcoming Lifetime Achievement album, due in August — we can add “sardonic folk” to the pandemic top 40.

WATCH "Town & Country"

Read the Full Rolling Stone Article HERE

Loudon Wainwright III to Release 31st Studio Album Lifetime Achievement

Loudon Wainwright III has announced his new album Lifetime Achievement, to be released August 19 on StorySound Records.  His first album of new original songs since 2014’s Haven’t Got The Blues Yet, Lifetime Achievement finds LWIII in a state of deep reflection at age 75, over a set of 15 recently written, insightful and incisive gems that he wasn’t even planning to pen.

Says Wainwright, “I remember when I made my first record for Atlantic in 1969. I was always saying, 'I want it to be a record – not only a recording, but a document that captures a moment.' I was 21 and very serious, and I thought I'd be dead in four years (laughs). So I wanted to make something that would last. A testament. Now, fifty years later, I guess I still want to make a testament. I want to write a group of songs and get them down in the best possible way. And I like to think they might last a while.”

Album highlights include “Town & Country” which finds Wainwright returning to his beloved Gotham after an extended stay in the country; thrilling to the round-the-clock wailing of sirens, the masked masses, and uninvited dinner guests of the rodent variety. Over a soulful groove and a hot band, he frames the “city vs. country” argument in his own inimitable style.  “Fam Vac,” a song about family vacations and the lived experience of Jean Paul Sartre’s famous observation that: “Hell is other people.”  Following a recurring theme, the song “Hell” imagines a baseball diamond full of dictators.  While Wainwright’s masterful wit and humor is on full contemplative display, so is his lump-in-the-throat tenderness, as on the a capella “One Wish.”     

While many tracks are stripped down with just Wainwright and a guitar or light accompaniment, others are seasoned with horns, strings, lap steel and electric guitar work, featuring many of his frequent collaborators: Chaim Tannenbaum (vocals, banjo, harmonica), David Mansfield (violin, viola, mandolin, 12-string guitar, Weissenborn guitar, pedal steel), Tony Scherr (guitar and bass), Rich Pagano (drums, percussion), Jon Cowherd (Wurlitzer, organ), and others including a string arrangement by Rob Moose. It was recorded with two of his longtime producers, Dick Connette and Stewart Lerman.

After thirty albums, a Grammy, many film and TV credits, and songs recorded by such artists as Johnny Cash, Mose Allison, Bonnie Raitt and his son Rufus, Wainwright is perhaps our foremost six-string analyst and tragicomedian. And with Lifetime Achievement his “unmatched wit and wisdom” (NPR) has never been on sharper display. 

Premiere: StorySound All-Stars Sing "Dangerous Business" on Folk Alley

Song Premiere: StorySound All-Stars “Dangerous Business”

Elaine May’s Ishtar turns 35 this year. The film features two bumbling songwriters—played by Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty (who produced the film)—casting about for songs when they happen upon the line “telling the truth is dangerous business.” Paul Williams wrote the song “Dangerous Business”—a more than tongue-in-cheek description of songwriting, in particular, and the refusal of the larger music industry to cut anything but bright and happy and sedate songs—for the film.

Last year StorySound Records owner Dick Connette gathered a dozen artists from the label’s roster—The StorySound All-Stars—in Restoration Sound and the Power Station at BerkleeNYC, and they have recorded a carefree, rollicking, downright joyous new version of the song that opens slowly and sparsely but picks up the tempo on every verse and chorus until the music dances off the grooves.

The plaintive notes of an accordion stroll into the Rachelle Garniez’s opening dedicatory lines: “and now Ladies and gentleman this next song is for a very lovely lady of the left.” Those sonically spare lines blossom exultantly into the opening verse, with a striding soulful vibe flowing over rolling piano chords and radiant accordion notes. The first verse lays out the stark truth of the life of a musician or songwriter: “Telling the truth is a dangerous business/Honest and popular don’t go hand in hand/If you admit that you can play the accordion/No one’ll hire you in a rock ‘n’ roll band.”

In defiant acclamation, though, the singers embrace the freedom music brings them, and us, and the power of music to heal: “But we can sing our hearts out/And if we’re lucky then no neighbors complain/Nobody knows where the beginning part starts out/But bein’ human we can live with the pain.” The chorus of voices spirals higher and higher as the music moves from a circling soul anthem peppered with spicy second-line ingredients and blaring Memphis horns. A heavenly chorus of all the singers’ voices elevates the double entendre refrain: “Because life is the way we audition for God/Let us pray that we all get the job.”

The entertaining new version of “Dangerous Business” is a tribute to May’s and Williams’ comic genius, as well as a showcase for a group of brilliant musicians singing their hearts out and reveling in the joys of the enduring power of song to bring us together.

Connette describes the way this version of the song came together: “When I decided to record the song, I instinctually wanted to include as many of the artists from my label as I could. Rachelle Garniez and Chaim Tannenbaum take the lead, and are supported by a chorus that includes Loudon Wainwright III, Suzzy Roche, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Ana Egge, Amanda Homi, Terry Radigan, Lorenzo Wolff and Daisy Press. It turned out my gut was right. Featured singer Rachelle Garniez told me she would have been really mad at me if I hadn’t asked her in on the session.

It turned out that many of those involved were May-fans and, for a few of them, Ishtar was something of a touchstone. In retrospect, it makes sense, as the no-compromise ethos of the label and of the artists themselves is distinctly of the ‘rather have nothing, than settle for less’ variety. The artists recognize that in each other and celebrate it in the joyous song (and dance) of that ‘Dangerous Business’ that is our life’s work.”

Watch the video HERE

PREMIERE: Rock Storyteller Pierce Turner ‘Set A Few Things Up’ On New Song & Video

Photo Credit: Chris Schoonover
 

“Set a Few Things Up” is a command and a suggestion, but it’s also the new single and music video from Pierce Turner.


An Irish bloke who put down some deep Big Apple roots over the years, this singer-songwriter has a sound and a style that is vintage and homegrown in the most superb way, but still holds your attention today, in the modern age, as if it is this creative endeavor that is shiny and new. 

Wholly unrefined  with an understated amount of rock and roll grit, the performer comes across as refreshing – the complete opposite of manufactured. Turner is a professional and a dedicated artist, which is a proven fact given his track record of collaborations and inpenetrable artistic relationships, but there is something so raw about his work that it’s easy to feel like a song such as “Set a Few Things Up” is a command given to you, the listener, as a direction that you can understand and should be following. His established musicality as a classic rocker with contemporary taste and extensive influences come to a head in 2022 with this release – which, as the third single, sets the stage for the forthcoming LP on February 25, Terrible Good

(Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17, is another date to keep in mind, as you might want to ‘set things up’ so that you can head over to Joe’s Pub for the album release show! It’s going to be a full band and a full set!)

Fans new and old can get ready for that with “Set a Few Things Up” and follow along to the effervescent, Robert Smith-esque track as if Turner is playing it just for them. And yet, we have to drive home again that the song emotes an intimacy and reality that makes everyone feel part of the experience. The brand new music video, which we are honored to premiere today, is just as anchoring and, surely, just as fun. It’s riveting, cinematic, crafty, and lighthearted. There are colors and harmonies, NYC ‘easter eggs,’ and more within the intricate, lively illustrations that conglomerate everything that makes Pierce Turner, Pierce Turner.

Mark Lerner and Nancy Howell of The Mark of Nancy crafted the video with love and a keen eye for what makes a song like “Set a Few Things Up” a monumental movement… on top of being a rocking song.

“Set a Few Things Up” reminds listeners that everyday is new, everyday is real, and everyday is up for the taking. If you’re anything like Pierce Turner, that day is a chance to rip into something musical with no qualms about the outside world. Uniquely his own boss of both his art and his day, he knows that sometimes you have to take the time to chase your dreams, and other times you have to let yourself rest. Why can you do that? Because as this single and its accompanying video explains: Tomorrow will come again and be there for you to start anew with an electric guitar in hand (or whatever else inspires you in the moment), so set up what you want for tht day and live in the moment until then. 

“Being a musician is a dodgy way to make a living, just like anyone who is self-employed I suppose,” explains Turner about how his life morphed into such a song like this one. “But it is a portable job, so there is always a gig around the corner that gets us out of trouble, so long as there is a guitar or a piano to play, I can make a few bob.  Being a songwriter requires a certain amount of living outside the box I suppose, the trouble is, sometimes you live there too long, and then you have to get up, shake yourself, and set a few things up. Hunt for a gig.” 

Doing what you’re passionate about and paying attention to what makes your days fulfilling, now more than ever, is vital to the joy you feel and the productivity you can have. Pierce Turner is an eloquent songwriter and a true folk rock star for all generations to jam to and learn from. He understands balance and reflects that in a track like “Set a Few Things Up!”

Balance is what makes him real. He is a musician and a rock star, as previously described, and he is a regular New Yorker, too, spending half the year in the city making connections and sharing his wide array of interests with the people he meets. (A musician and solo artist is just one aspect of who Turner is. He has also worked in movies and film scoring, operas, and other influential, melodic projects.)

Pierce Turner is living his truth and doing those exact things, working with people he is inspired by to make music that inspires others. Gerry Leonard, the guitarist known best for his time with the late, great, interstellar star that was David Bowie, is a collaborator on this new single. Leonard is an art rocker in every sense of the word. Together, Turner and Leonard teeter on the edge of glittery, atmospheric progressive music, and still have a basis in folksy, ambient, and eclectic Irish rock – both being Irishmen who set up camp in New York. 

One of his previous releases, “Where It Should Be,” has this bluesy storyteller essence. It drives home that idea that we can do and create anyting as we explore our day-to-day and share ourselves with others. It is these two songs that discuss how fleeting life is and how important sculpting our own path and passions can be. His tone as an artist builds out that idea in a Johnny Cash meets The Cure sort of way. Reflective fifties and sixties artistry with the production quality and electricity of the eighties illuminate where Pierce Turner is going and what he wants to say in his jam-worthy music.

“SET A FEW THINGS UP” IS OUT NOW WHEREVER YOU LISTEN TO MUSIC! PIERCE TURNER’S NEW ALBUM, TERRIBLE GOOD, IS OUT ON FEBRUARY 25! MORE INFO ON TURNER AND GERRY LEONARD’S SHOW AT JOE’S PUB IN MANHATTAN ON MARCH 17 CAN BE FOUND HERE!

WATCH the video here

 

Record Release Show Announced: Pierce Turner and Band at Joe's Pub in NYC on March 17

In celebration of the release of the new album 'Terrible Good' Pierce Turner and band featuring guitarist Gerry Leonard, bassist Tony Shanahan and drummer Yuval Lion will appear at Joe's Pub on March 17th/St. Patrick's Day.   Terrible Good is out Feb 25th on StorySound Records.

Joe's Pub At The Public Theater, New-York, Concert hall - Concerts, address  & info | Paris Jazz Club

Pierce Turner- whose life, work, songs, and stories span the Atlantic from Wexford, Ireland to Manhattan’s East Village- has made his most rocking album to date.  Terrible Good, featuring producer and guitarist Gerry Leonard (David Bowie), bassist Tony Shanahan (Patti Smith) and drummer Yuval Lion (David Byrne), is an edgy guitar album that forges an extraordinary alloy of 70’s downtown New York punk and Irish alternative rock. The songs offer reflections on love, friendship, immigration, mortality and the need for resilience against hard times. There are nine originals and a cover of Tom Rapp’s (Pearls Before Swine) “Rocket Man.” Somehow pounding and soaring at the same time, the songs soulfully testify to the awful and awesome everyday, the human predicament – It’s Terrible Good.

Click HERE for more information and purchase tickets.

Pierce Turner Premieres Video for ‘Where It Should Be’ featuring Bowie Guitarist Gerry Leonard

Exclusive: Pierce Turner Premieres Video for ‘Where It Should Be’ ft. Bowie Guitarist Gerry Leonard

Pierce Turner collaborates with former Bowie guitarist on new album ‘Terrible Good’

Made in collaboration with David Bowie guitarist Gerry Leonard, Irish singer-songwriter Pierce Turner announced a new studio album entitled Terrible Good, out February 25 via StorySound Records. Turner wrote the songs for the album over a four-year period, in a process complicated by living and working in two different countries and during a pandemic. Bookending Terrible Good are songs that jump back and forth between New York City and Wexford.

Electric guitars definitely are central to Terrible Good, arising from his collaboration with Leonard. These fellow Irish expats (who met years ago when Leonard mixed sound at a club where Turner often played) are both fans of Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Television, and Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac. While this shared affinity might seep into a song on occasion, Turner shares that “I like to learn from the past, but not imitate it – to take it somewhere else while using every lesson learned.”

Working with Leonard, Latin Grammy-winning engineer Héctor Castillo, and the “classic rhythm section glue” – bassist Tony Shanahan (Patti Smith, Beck) and drummer Yuval Lion (David Byrne, Sharon Jones and the Dap-tones, Chrissie Hynde) – inspired Turner to revisit two old songs of his: “Stephen” (aka “Stephen’s Preparing to Leave” from 1997’s Angelic Language) and “More” (from 2001’s 3 Minute World). Both songs benefit from their new, harder-edged arrangements, with the interplay between quiet and the louder sections (like Leonard’s ferocious solo in the middle of “More”) increasing the songs’ dynamics.

Terrible Good is a rocking, electric album; a foray into contemporary rock from Pierce, an artist whose eclectic projects in the last decade include writing for opera, scoring films, and reimaging Irish folk songs. Together with Gerry Leonard, he has created a “New York rock album” with the influence of his Irish roots. Leonard — who was also a frequent collaborator with Rufus Wainwright and Suzanne Vega — is only the latest of many noteworthy collaborators for Pierce; lead singer of Black 47 Larry Kerwan formed a punk band with Pierce in the 80s, legendary composer Philip Glass produced his debut album, and John Simon (Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Cass Elliot) produced his acclaimed third album Now Is Heaven.

Premiering exclusively today is the VIDEO for Terrible Good’s opening track “Where It Should Be.” Pierce sings about his “dad walking up that hill to the hospital with his heart full of joie de vivre,” while Leonard’s signature ambient guitar is buoyed by the emotive and elegant strings of David Mansfield (Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue). The theme of mortality runs through the song, but so does the promise of a new day. To ABS, Pierce explains further the inspiration:

We all live in hope, illogical hope, but real as anything that we can touch or feel. We always believe that there is a bright sun up ahead somewhere, even on our darkest day.

Life is all around us, it’s a constant distraction, and that itself is life itself, blinding life. We assume the world will do a normal turn, and that everything will be where it should be, and it is.

SONG/VIDEO PREMIERE: Pierce Turner Joins up With Gerry Leonard On Explosive Rocker “Tommy and Timmy”

Pierce Turner’s songs are like a soundtrack to a pub rock documentary – mixing the pent up singing of Joe Strummer atop the supercharged guitar sounds. It’s no surprise that Turner splits his time between Ireland and NYC, as his contagious old school rock statement is as much hustle and bustle as it is explosively passionate. Turner is back with a new album Terrible Good out on February 25 via StorySound Records. which signals a collaboration with renowned guitarist Gerry Leonard (David Bowie, Rufus Wainwright, Suzanne Vega).

With a genre-bending approach to writing and an incredible list of collaborators, Turner has received immense praise for his outstanding artistry and musical career. His first solo album, It’s A Long Way Across (1986) was co-produced by acclaimed composer Phillip Glass; other collaborators include iconic producer John Simon (The Band, Leonard Cohen) who joined him on 1991’s Now Is Heaven, and Larry Kirwan (co-founder of Black 47) with whom Turner had an 80s punk-rock band. In the past decade, Turner has worked on a broad range of projects which include writing operas, scoring films, and composing a contemporary Mass. His last album, 2019’s Vinegar Hill reimagined old Irish folk songs. Terrible Good marks a new chapter of his eclectic career, pairing him with producer and guitarist Leonard to create an album about mortality and movement; it is a New York album from the perspective of two Irish New Yorkers.

Glide is premiering the album’s first single and video for, “Tommy and Timmy,” a jovial and  eulogistic tune about two fellow Irish expats living in New York City, that is pure “pour me another” with its highly charged corrosive rock flavor. Read on below for Turner’s candid description and creative influence of the tune.

They used to come to my gigs in The Village. I played with a string quartet at the time. These two hairy guys, smiling and laughing, getting every little nuance of my Irish sarcasm, self-pity, and humour – sat beaming before me like two muppets. Then one summer I was fortunate to be home from New York, where I had emigrated to donkeys ago, and got to see Wexford playing hurling in Dublin’s massive Croke Park. My sister Bernie had secured the tickets through a network of GAA outlets (the Gaelic sport organisers), bars, and supermarkets, or off someone who knew someone.

After the match, we were rolling along with the sea of people, through working-class Dublin, when we came to a low size stone bridge. There, with their back to the canal, leaned Tommy and Timmy, upon their elbows, upon the wall, beaming in the sun. I was astounded and astonished, “What?? Tommy and Timmy! What are you two doing here?” “Howzitgoin Pierce” yawned the two lads, smiling as always.

As I left them there, it astonished me how blasé they were, considering I had only ever seen them in New York, although they were from Ireland. After that, I lost track of them. Tommy met his lovely wife in the Czech Republic, they came to New York and raised a beautiful family, while Timmy continued to work in McSorley’s on 7th  St. Then sadly from out of the blue I was informed that Tommy had died, and was asked to sing at his memorial. So I wrote this song and sang it very crudely at Arlene’s Grocery in New York that night in front of Tommy’s wife and Timmy.

All I had to do was remember them. My favourite T and T memories include one night after my gig, when we were in a taxi heading west to MacManus’s, I found myself bursting into enthusiastic song “Oh the cattle are standing like statues.” Tommy and Timmy began rolling around laughing, their curly, shaggy hair bouncing up and down. It was a line from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oh What a Beautiful Morning,” I had learnt it for fun, and when I sang that line across the two heads in the back seat, it was perfection, three Irish lads with agriculture and cow shit embedded in their roots, singing Broadway! It was our lives condensed into ten syllables.

I am proud to say Tommy and Timmy is a Gaelic hurling song, my favourite sport, dedicated to Tommy English and his best friend Timmy from McSorley’s.”

WATCH the video

Pierce Turner Collaborates with Former Bowie Guitarist Gerry Leonard for Powerful New Album Terrible Good

MULTI-AWARD-WINNING MUSICIAN PIERCE TURNER GOES ELECTRIC ON HIS POWERFUL NEW ALBUM TERRIBLE GOOD

Turner teams up with former Bowie guitarist Gerry Leonard on the latest musical endeavor in his distinctive, much-praised career

Today, Irish-born/NYC-based rocker Pierce Turner announced a forthcoming album entitled Terrible Good. The rocking, electric guitar album was made in collaboration with acclaimed guitarist Gerry Leonard (David Bowie, Rufus Wainwright, Suzanne Vega) and is set for release on February 25 via StorySound Records.

An Irish-American musician in the truest, and most literal, sense, Pierce Turner lives half the year in his hometown of Wexford, Ireland, and the other half in his longtime adopted hometown of New York City. Both places are reflected in his songs, which frequently move between these two different worlds, linked through his keen observations and ruminations. His music expresses a duality too, sliding between the earthly and the ethereal, the miraculous and the mundane, the pure and profane. And it’s present in the title of his latest album, Terrible Good (due out 25 February on StorySound Records). Turner loves the ways the phrase’s meaning gets twisted by using “a negative out of context with the positive.”

Turner’s description of Terrible Good, however, is crystal clear. “It is my first real electric guitar album,” he says, adding “it’s an album with a New York edge.” Electric guitars definitely are central to Terrible Good, arising from his collaboration with guitarist/producer Gerry Leonard (David Bowie, Rufus Wainwright, Suzanne Vega). These fellow Irish expats (who met years ago when Leonard mixed sound at a club where Turner often played) are both fans of Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Television, and Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac. While this shared affinity might seep into a song on occasion, Turner shares that “I like to learn from the past, but not imitate it – to take it somewhere else while using every lesson learned.”        

Turner wrote the songs for Terrible Good over a four-year period, in a process complicated by living and working in two different countries and during a pandemic. The songs taps into themes like mortality and movement, and thoughts about the past and reminders to enjoy the present and future. While Terrible Good displays a harder, grittier sound than Turner’s albums typically do, the music still contains choral touches, quiet interludes, and even playful moments. 

Bookending Terrible Good are songs that jump back and forth between New York City and Wexford. In the opening number, “Where It Should Be,” Turner recalls his father walking to the hospital with his heart full of joie de vivre. While a shadow of death lingers over the song, there also are images of blue skies and hope, much like Leonard’s ambient-like guitar is balanced by beautiful strings provided by guest David Mansfield (Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue).

Terrible Good’s closing track, “Tommy and Timmy,” also ponders mortality but with a totally different mood. Turner wrote this joyous, rollicking tale about two great buddies of his, and sang it at Tommy’s memorial service. He describes “Tommy and Timmy” as a Gaelic hurling song, but his heartfelt affection makes it a song everyone can relate to.

“Set A Few Things Up,” “Australia,” and “Love of Angels” are particularly strong examples, in their own ways, of the album’s rock edge. While Rolling Stones-inspired riffs make “Love of Angels” a spirited song to dance to, Stones tunes don’t reference Chopin or Paul Bowles like this one does. “Australia,” meanwhile, ebbs and flows between a bouncy, New Wave-ish beat and a squall of electric guitars.

“Love Never Fails,” a song about resisting negativity, is the only tune Turner wrote on the piano, but it was transformed by Leonard’s orchestral guitar work (Turner marvels at how Leonard made his guitar sound like an oboe). Working with Leonard, Latin Grammy-winning engineer Héector Castillo, and the “classic rhythm section glue” - bassist Tony Shanahan (Patti Smith, Beck) and drummer Yuval Lion (David Byrne, Sharon Jones and the Dap-tones, Chrissie Hynde) – inspired Turner to revisit two old songs of his: “Stephen” (aka “Stephen’s Preparing to Leave” from 1997’s Angelic Language) and “More” (from 2001’s 3 Minute World). Both songs benefit from their new, harder-edged arrangements, with the interplay between quiet and the louder sections (like Leonard’s ferocious solo in the middle of “More”) increasing the songs’ dynamics.

Terrible Good’s sole cover, “Rocket Man,” isn’t the well-known Taupin/John tune but an earlier, same-titled tune penned by Pearls Before Swine’s Tom Rapp. Turner’s history with “Rocket Man” goes back to his early days in NYC, when a would-be manager wanted his first band, Turner and Kirwan of Wexford (yes, that’s Larry Kirwan, later co-founder of Black 47) to record the song but they refused. “I did like the song though,” Turner admits. “The fact that it’s still a great song shows its power.”

Music has always been a constant presence in Turner’s life. His parents ran a record store in Wexford, a coastal city in southeastern Ireland. As a child, he sang in the church choir and played in a brass and reed band. During his teen years, Turner performed in various beat and folk groups, and, at 18, he had a short stint in the popular Irish showband, the Arrows. When he was 22, he left for New York City with his pal Kirwan. As Turner and Kirwan of Wexford, they played around the city during the 70s, eventually recording one album, 1977’s Absolutely and Completely, which inventively mixed folk music with prog rock. By the start of the 80s, the pair started a synth-y new wave dance group, Major Thinkers, whose several releases included a 1983 EP on Portrait Records.

In the mid-80s, Turner went off on his own. He composed music for modern dance and hung out in NYC’s downtown art scene, where he got to know composer Philip Glass. Glass wound up co-producing Turner’s first solo album, It’s A Long Way Across, which received a New York Music Awards Best Debut nomination, starting a seemingly endless series of accolades.

Turner’s Now Is Heaven, helmed by legendary producer John Simon (the Band, Leonard Cohen), was voted a top 5 album of the year in Ireland. Hot Press Magazine voted him Solo Performer of the Year and later Maverick of the Year. His album, 3 Minute World, ranked among Ireland’s top 100 records of all time and his song “Wicklow Hills” made the list of Ireland’s all-time top 25 songs. New York Magazine hailed Turner as “New York’s hidden gem” in their cover story on him. Turner was proclaimed easily one of the most important Irish artists of the last twenty years” by The Irish Times’ Tony Clayton Lea, while The Sunday Times’ Liam Fay declared that he created “the finest body of work in contemporary Irish music, bar none.”

Over the years, Turner has worked on a broad range of projects. He has written for opera, scored movies, and composed a contemporary Mass. He collaborated with Philip Glass on the song “Yogi With A Broken Heart;” done a concept album about time and his last release, Vinegar Hill, was a set of reimagined traditional Irish folk songs. His genre-hopping, style-blending approach reflects Turner’s belief that if you do the same thing all the time you will always have the same result.

Being an artist who defies categorization, however, does have its downsides. With the release of Terrible Good, Turner has decided it was time to pigeonhole his music – at least, he says, so he can fill out his Spotify form. He is quick to clarify that “the pigeonhole was created by the music, not vice versa.” Let the world know: “I hereby divorce myself from the Singer-Songwriter category, and do join the shelf of Irish Rock!”

Terrible Good tracklist:

1. Where It Should Be
2. Set a Few Things Up
3. Love Never Fails
4. Love of Angels
5. Stephen
6. Rocket Man
7. Don’t Get Too Fallen
8. Australia
9. More
10. Tommy and Timmy 

Suzzy Roche & Lucy Wainwright Roche October Tour Dates

They will be perfroming songs from their critically acclaimed 2020 StorySound Records release I Can Still Hear You

Video Premiere: Ana Egge's 'We Lay Roses' on New Folk Initiatives with John Platt

VIDEO PREMIERE: Ana Egge "We Lay Roses"

Over the course of more than a dozen albums, Brooklyn's Ana Egge has been one of folk's most consistently satisfying songwriters. Her fans have included Ron Sexsmith and Lucinda Williams. Her new album, Between Us, stakes out some fresh sonic territory and addresses some of the divisiveness of our world. The last track is a little different: a breathtaking ballad, which I'm honored to present as an exclusive premiere on the New Folk Initiative website. Ana describes it this way:

“I wrote ‘We Lay Roses’ as I worked through my early grief at the loss of my nephew in 2020. As a tribute to him, and also as a comfort to all of us who have lost someone too soon. He was such a kind and loving and troubled person. He wouldn’t want us all to be walking around so sad and heartbroken. I wanted the lyrics to somehow focus on the time that we did have with him while he was with us. My friend Gary Nicholson helped me write this song. Gary has such a big heart and I trust him so much.

"Producer Lorenzo Wolff and I knew that we wanted a lone trumpet for this track and we were honored to have Alfonso Horne join us in the studio and again for the filming of the video. Alfonso is such an incredible musician and kind and sweet man. I am forever grateful for the support that surrounded me in creating this heartbreaking little gem of a song.”

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Ana Egge 'Between Us' Reviewed in No Depression Magazine

On ‘Between Us,’ Ana Egge Adds Wide Range of Sounds to Her Songwriting

Ana Egge has more than just her way with words. There’s an ever-interesting mastery over the music as well. Together, her creative talents are what make Between Us such a layered and lovely listening experience.

Between Us is Egge’s is her 12th full-length studio album. By this point, most artists have long since run out of words to say or ways to say them. Her longevity in the business speaks to her deep creative well and her determined sonic exploration.

Musical examples of both are immediately found on Between Us. A mid-tempo snare sets the groove for “Wait a Minute” alongside Michael Isvara Montgomery’s notable bass work, a seductive canvas for the impressive brass segment that serves as the track’s focal point. Egge uses the jazzier vehicle to remind us of the need to slow down and listen. She reminds us, “If you want to move, it has to get uncomfortable.”

Most of these 11 tracks were co-written with Irish singer-songwriter Mick Flannery over Zoom sessions during the pandemic. In addition, some impressive players entered Egge’s orbit for the first time, giving the album greater breadth.

The percussive flute — yes, a percussive flute — played by Ahn Phung on “You Hurt Me,” the compelling mix of synth and horns on “Want Your Attention,” the steel guitar by Jonny Lam on “Lie Lie Lie”: These musical choices range from flourishes to front-and-center, but they’re all seasoned and smart selections that truly make the record.

Lyrically speaking, Egge’s catalog is already filled with relational insights, and Between Us holds a few more. “The Machine” paints a simple scene of a partner working on old car engines and turns it into a reflection on our inability to listen and comprehend the obvious changes coming our way. “You could understand me but you would have to try,” she laments.

Egge’s closing selection is a somber one, a eulogy for a nephew who tragically passed away at a young age. “We thought that you would shine on and on,” she sings on “We Lay Roses.” It’s a meaningful track that holds considerable power over the listener. Yet it’s also a reminder that for all of our stylish choices and interesting turns, Egge is at her core a substantive artist. Maybe that is what 12 albums released speaks to more than anything else.

Full Article HERE

Song Premiere: Ana Egge's "Want Your Attention" Featuring J. Hoard in Rock & Roll Globe

LISTEN: “Want Your Attention” Is a Perfect Song for an End-of-Summer Soundtrack

Rock & Roll Globe premieres Ana Egge’s new single

August 24, 2021 Lee Zimmerman

Ana Egge has always been a thoughtful and provocative singer and songwriter.  Her debut album, 1997’s River Under the Road, won immediate kudos and garnered her the title of “Best Singer Songwriter” and “Best Folk Artist” at the Austin Music Awards, and marked the beginning of a critically acclaimed career. She quickly accelerated her efforts from there and began working with a number of notable artists, among them, Steve Earle, producers Alex Spiegelman, Stewart Lerman, and Joel Plaskett, as well as the Stray Birds and The Sentimentals.  

Earlier this year, Egge released a pair of songs as a virtual two-sided single, “This Time/“The Ship,” which, accordingly, received further praise from both friends and fans. Now with a new album, Between Us  — remarkably, her 12th effort to date — she’s staking out new sonic territory while continuing to explore themes that dig deep into the human psyche. She claims that many of the songs on the album were inspired by dreams, and further processed in collaboration with Irish singer-songwriter Mick Flannery, with whom she shared FaceTime during the early stages of the pandemic. Their efforts resulted in eleven songs that made their way to the new album and several others that Flannery will use on his own.

With producer Lorenzo Wolff behind the boards and an ethnically and racially diverse group of musicians enlisted as her backing band, Between Us diverges from her previous efforts in terms of its sounds and sonics. While her hushed but pointed vocals are still prominent at the fore, there’s brass dominating nearly every track, with added embellishment from synths, steel guitar, and other added instrumental accoutrements. It is, as Wolff says in a press release, “a big, messy record.”

That ambition is reflected in the album’s first single “Want Your Attention,” which Rock & Roll Globe is privileged to premiere. Catchy and playful in an eager yet easy sort of way, the song suggests a chance encounter between two people who find a shared attraction.

“You make me laugh, take me off

Wanna catch you lookin’ want your attention
How you nod when I talk when you want what I got

Don’t you stop not listening”

“‘Want Your Attention’ is all about catching someone’s eye and being desired,” Egge told us exclusively. “About feeling good and moving your body. The melody for the chorus came to me in a dream and I realized that it fit perfectly with the verse chord structure that I’d been fooling around with Alec Spiegelman. Mick Flannery and I had a great time writing the lyrics and the rest of the melody together. We imagined we were out at the club and what that’s like, chasing and being chased flirtatiously. When it came time to record it, I knew that I wanted the incredible J. Hoard to take the lead vocals. His voice and energy fit the song perfectly. Singing with him in the studio was a real highlight of the whole year for me.”

Hoard was equally complimentary when it came to Egge and her ability. “Ana Egge is a genius songwriter,” he notes, “’Want Your Attention’” is another tune that showcases her endless skill in lyricism and melody. I am honored to feature on this bouncy, playful, and downright cute song. ‘Want Your Attention’ will make heads bop and toes tap! Perfect song to include in the end of summer — a beach/pool party soundtrack.”

We tend to agree. At a time when everyone is seeking some adventure and compelled to make a connection, “Want Your Attention” begs notice all on its own.

LISTEN HERE

 

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