David Dondero first came onto my radar in 2010 (and that was late!) with the release of #Zero With A Bullet, the title track also featured in one of our most popular mixes on Folk Radio titled ‘Oranges to Blues‘, which has wracked up nearly 22,000 plays. His bio states that he was initially a drummer and lyricist; he formed Sunbrain in 1991, a post-punk indie rock quartet heavily influenced by Fugazi and Dischord Records. Grass Records signed Sunbrain, and they recorded three albums. When the group disbanded, he went on to play the drums for the folk punk band, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb. After two years, he left the band and began his solo career. He’s been doing that since 1998, and his music has taken him all over the world.
In 2006 Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton of NPR put David on their list of the ten greatest living songwriters. We published a live review of an intimate gig at Bethnal Green’s Gallery Cafe in which that little nugget was at the forefront of the reviewer’s mind when Dondero introduced himself to the audience as “…’a singer from Yugoslavia’, the artist, in fact hailing from Minnesota, was named in a list of Greatest Living Songwriters by NPR’s All Songs Considered but perhaps shunned any notion of being listed amongst the likes of Dylan and Cohen in opening his set with a Willie Nelson cover.“
In 2020, David Dondero released The Filter Bubble Blues, his 10th LP. It was described as a biting, wary, heartbroken and sometimes hilarious sendup of the dumpster fire that is modern American political theatre and identity politics.
Things were looking good until someone pressed the pause button…and, thanks to the pandemic, his US tour was cancelled. As an itinerant musician who had spent the last two decades making a home on the road, Dondero was faced with finding a spot to hunker down and wait out the quarantine. He drove back to Portland to shelter in the garage loft at Fluff and Gravy Records HQ. What he thought would be a few months turned into a few years as we waited for live music and touring to recover.
The silver lining of Donero’s situation was his access to the Fluff and Gravy Studio and their house band (John Shepski and Juniana Lanning). He began writing the tracks for his 11th studio LP, Immersion Therapy, and fleshing them out with John and Juniana.
The first recording to be released from those sessions is ‘Recipe to be Lonely‘, also our Song of the Day.
Talking about the song, Dondero recounts, “It was an experiment to find out who my friends were. I decided not to call anyone to see if anyone would call me? It was a terrible idea. The recipe to be lonely. Only heard from a few people. One of them was a drunk I barely knew, and another was a close friend who’s dead now. They both called me. Maybe I should have called them first.”
The man, who was once told he was “too quirky for Nashville”, remains a totally captivating singer songwriter…more people should know of him.
Stream the single here and pre-order the album on Bandcamp.
“Immersion Therapy is a grieving process. A dive into the darkness of mental illness, isolation, and a remembrance of loved ones lost. All the while trying to hang onto my own sanity,” says Dondero. “I lost a dear friend twice; once to mental illness and then suicide.”
The album cover art features the ritual burning of a mask Dondero painted and has used for 25 years on various albums. For David, the mask represented self-hatred, imposter syndrome, social anxiety, addiction, and depression. “People signed the mask in solidarity at my concerts. I burned it in the mountains outside Reno, NV,” said Dondero. “I took many pictures as the mask burned. In one photo, I imagined a woman weeping in the flames. I used that picture for the cover. I hope the people who signed the back will see the picture and remember my intent was to burn up a little piece of our collective depression.”
Immersion Therapy is set to be released on Fluff and Gravy Records on August 18, 2023. The album features John Shepski on keys and bass, Juniana Lanning on drums and backing vocals, Anna Tivel on violin, Nic Clark on harmonica, Patrick Spurgeon (The Dandy Warhols) on drums, Skip Vonkuske (Portland Cello Project) on Cello, and Paul Brainerd on pedal steel and string arrangement.
Immersion Therapy will be released on August 18, 2023, via Fluff and Gravy Records
https://daviddondero1.bandcamp.com/album/immersion-therapy/