Following the release of Myriam Gendron‘s stunning debut album Not So Deep As A Well in 2014, it was seven years before the release of her second album Ma délire – Songs of love, lost & found (featured on our KLOF No. 13 Mixtape). The world is finally waking up to this compelling singer and songwriter. Her debut was reissued last year, a highly recommended album, if you’ve not heard it, on which she explores Dorothy Parker’s poetry – the wit, the bite, and all the lonesome heartache, becomes so heavy and so clear.
For her new album, Mayday (due out May 10th via Thrill Jockey & Feeding Tube),she continues the work she began with Ma délire, informed as much by folk traditions as it is pop forms. Her music is subtly lifted on the lead single ‘Long Way Home‘, what she describes as her first pop song, by fellow guitarist Marisa Anderson and drummer Jim White (Dirty Three), who also recently announced a new duo album, and Montreal bassist Cédric Dind-Lavoie (a fellow fan of trad/avant dynamism who recently announced his duo album Au Chemin 4 with Alexis Chartrand). Also featured on Mayday are Bill Nace (Body/Head) and saxophonist Zoh Amba (whose horn actually gets the final “word”).
Gendron explains on “Long Way Home”:
“This was one of the first songs I wrote for the album. I wanted to write a song with verses and a chorus, which was a bit of a challenge for me, as I’m more used to ballads without a chorus. I also wanted to continue the work I’d started on Ma délire, where I’d begun to experiment with songwriting inspired by tradition. But the aim of such a process is to go beyond a mere exercise in quotations. The result has to be internally coherent and reflect emotion in a way that’s fair and true. And it has to be a pleasant song to listen to, even for those who don’t know my sources of inspiration. I feel I’ve met that challenge with “Long Way Home”, which is, in a way my first pop song, thanks to the contributions of Cédric Dind-Lavoie, Jim White and Marisa Anderson. We made jokes while recording it in the studio. Jim isn’t used to playing in this style, and it made him smile a lot. He said he felt like Mick Fleetwood! This song opens the album with the idea of a symbolic shipwreck (“when my great ship went down”, a reference to the popular song “It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down” about the sinking of the Titanic) and the retreat that follows. The words of the refrain “Mother make my bed” are also very old, and are a recurring motif in traditional songs about returning home (sometimes to die).”
Stream Long Way Home: https://myriamgendron.komi.io/
Myriam Gendron – Mayday tracklist:
- There Is No East Or West
- Long Way Home
- Terres brûlées
- Dorothy’s Blues
- La Luz
- La belle Françoise (pour Sylvie)
- Lully Lullay
- Look Down That Lonesome Road
- Quand j’étais jeune et belle
- Berceuse
Pre-order Myriam Gendron’s Mayday: https://myriamgendron.komi.io/
Myriam Gendron Tour Dates
Mar. 22 – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival
Apr. 2 – Minneapolis, MN – The Cedar
Apr. 4 – Rock Island, IL – Rozz Tox
Apr. 5 – Milwaukee, WI – Wilson Center
Apr. 6 – Chicago, IL – Judson & Moore
Apr. 26 – Williamstown, MA – Clark Art Institute
May 16 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge *
May 17 – Keene, NH – Thing in the Spring *
May18 – Montréal, QC – Lion d’Or *
May 20 – Portland, OR – Holocene *
May 22 – Seattle, WA – Rabbit Box *
May 23 – Vancouver, BC – St. James Community Square *
May 24 – San Diego, CA – The Loft *
May 25 – Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon *
May 26 – Mill Valley, CA – Sweetwater Music Hall *
Jun. 28 – Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall ^
- w/ Jim White & Marisa Anderson (duo)
^ w/ Kurt Vile & the Violators