Portland-based country-soul group The Delines recently announced their third studio album, The Sea Drift, released 11th February 2022 via décor. The album has been described as their most cinematic, soulful and visual album yet. Their new single “Past the Shadows”, released digitally tomorrow (9th December), backs that statement up to the full.
The Delines offers the perfect vehicle for Willy Vlautin, the former frontman of the alt-country group Richmond Fontaine, and the effortless and soulful vocals of Amy Boone. Vlautin, also an acclaimed novelist, writes rich, engaging songs, but with Amy Boone on board, they take it all to another soulful level. The band, conjuring a southern groove, finds Cory Gray on keyboards, strings, and horn arrangements at the centre, sympathetically backed by the soul bass of Freddy Trujillo and jazz drummer Sean Oldham. Together, they create an irresistible cohesive, soulful whole that works so well.
Past The Shadows has a 60s or early 70s classic vibe…but that’s no surprise, seeing as Willy and Amy bonded over a shared love of soul and country songwriters from the 60s like the funky swamp rock of Tony Joe White and the country soul of Bobbie Gentry. Past The Shadows has that same smokey smoothness of White’s ‘Homemade Ice Cream’…and that was smooth. Sadly, although Tony (who passed away in 2018) and Bobbie never did collaborate, the spirit of ‘what could have been’ lives on here. This one track is worth the price of admission alone.
Frontman Willy Vlautin on Past the Shadows:
This is one of the earliest songs I wrote for the album session. I was thinking about that self-destructive dream of never having to live like anyone else, of not having to be a part of regular society. That pull of living like a vampire, the romance of it, the freedom of it, but also the darkness of it, and the unattainability of it. We wanted the song to be a seduction itself, easy and catchy, warm and velvety, but underneath is a world of scars and failure. Amy’s voice really draws you in, and Cory’s string and horn arrangement creates the sonic world that I always pictured was New Orleans, where, in the heat of the day, you sleep and hide and recover, and it’s only after sundown that the pull of the night life calls you out again.
Filmed by Greg Schmitt and Edited by Zach Jones, the accompanying live performance video, shot at the band’s rehearsal space in Portland, Oregon, really captures that New Orleans feel with its shallow focus and that neverending nighttime feel. It’s just perfect in every way.
An exclusive edition of The Sea Drift is available via Rough Trade shops with a bonus cd of five extra tracks on coloured vinyl in a gatefold sleeve. In addition to the band’s London show at Union Chapel, they will play the next day at Rough Trade East store with signed editions of the record. See UK and EU tour dates below.
As an extra bonus, Jerry Joseph will be supporting all the February dates. We reviewed Jerry’s album This Beautiful Madness, released in 2020 on which Folk Radio’s Bob Fish concludes “Make no mistake The Beautiful Madness is a record that demands to be heard…Jerry Joseph has created nothing short of a masterpiece. This is a candidate for Album of the Year. Period.”
Pre-Order The Sea Drift here: https://pocp.co/the-sea-drift.opr
The Delines UK and EU 2022 tour:
Feb 9 Cork, IE – Live At St Lukes
Feb 10 Belfast, UK – Rosemary St Church
Feb 11 Kilkenny, IE – Set Theatre
Feb 12 Dublin, IE – Liberty Hall Theatre
Feb 13 Bury, UK – The Met
Feb 14 Bristol, UK – The Fleece
Feb 15 Pocklington, UK – Arts Centre
Feb 16 Newcastle, UK – Gosforth Civic
Feb 17 Glasgow, UK – St Lukes
Feb 18 Nottingham, UK – Metronome
Feb 19 London, UK – Union Chapel
Feb 21 Brussels, BE – AB Club
Feb 22 Wageningen, NL – Junushoff
Feb 23 Utrecht, NL – Tivolivredenburgh
Feb 24 Groningen, NL – Oosterpoort
Feb 25 Eeklo, BE – N9
April 19 Oslo (Asker), NO – Kulturhus
April 20 Stockholm, SE – tbc
April 21 Goteborg, SE – Pustervik
April 22 Malmo, SE – tbc
April 23 Odense, DK – Dexter
April 24 Copenhagen, DK – Stairway
April 25 Hamburg, DE – Nochtspieiler
April 26 Oberhausen, DE – Zentrum Altenberg
April 27 Hamont-Achel, BE – Aha
April 28 Venlo, NL – Grenswerk
April 29 Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso Noord
More here: https://www.thedelines.com/
Photo Credit: Jason Quigley