California-born and now Nashville-based acclaimed singer-songwriter Grant-Lee Phillips will release his new album The Narrows on March 18, 2016 on Yep Roc Records. The album, his eighth solo release, is available for pre-order with an instant download of “Cry Cry,” which we have the pleasure in sharing with you below:
On his last UK appearance with Howe Gelb we featured a live review of their gig at The Portland Arms in which Paul summed up his songwriting wonderfully:
These are songs carved from countless motel rooms and bar-stool dinners, dark roads and the freedom of moving on in the morning. It’s a world of Studebakers and woods where no-one goes, where lovers keep a .38 handy and dream of white weddings, a land of ripe fields, dry rivers and cold hearts. You can trace Phillip’s stories and characters back through Ryan Adams, Springsteen, Buckley, Cash, Jones and Seeger, and everything coalesces in the most expressive of voices, in fine form tonight across a range of songs and keys. Phillips is warmly received and appreciative of the audience, regularly acceding to their requests.
(full review here)
He also referred to his performance of Cry Cry as being the most arresting moment of the evening…
Recorded at Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Studio in Nashville, the 13-song set is Phillips’ first since his move from Los Angeles, his home of some thirty years, to Music City in 2013. “It held the promise of a quieter life,” Phillips explains, “something resembling my own rural upbringing in the San Joaquin Valley. And the people of the mid-south reminded me of home – my dad being from Arkansas, my mom from Oklahoma. And the soundtrack of my boyhood was so often tethered to Nashville.”
Produced by Phillips (guitar/vocals) and recorded as a trio with Jerry Roe (drums) and Lex Price (electric and upright bass), The Narrows is bathed in a woody, warmly reverberating sonic signature. Marked by longing and a resolute sense of purpose, the nexus of romance, recollection, historic struggles and tragedies, and peerless craftsmanship—coupled with the hopes, fears, and isolation that accompany transition—formed the backdrop for the album.
“This set of songs,” Phillips observes, “seem to pivot between the personal and historical—like a lens, focusing in and out. The Creek and the Cherokee, of which I’m descendent, called this land home before the removal. I’m captivated by the stories and the energy here.”
Following the release of The Narrows you can catch Grant-Lee Phillips on tour in the UK and Europe in April 2016, see dates below:
Tour Dates
18 April – Cantu, Italy @ All’1.35
19 April – San Costanzo @ Teatro della Concordia
20 April – Bologna, Italy @ Bravo Cafe
21 April – Graz, Austria @ Orpheum Extra
22 April – Vienna, Austria @ B72
24 April – Copenhagen @ Vega Jnr.
25 April – Berlin, Germany @ Monarch
26 April – Amsterdam @ Bitterzoet
27 April – Paris, France @ Pop Up Du Label
28 April – London, England @ Borderline
29 April – Bristol, England @ Louisiana
30 April – Manchester, England @ Deaf Institute
01 May – Dublin, Ireland @ Whelans