Hello friends.
I’m excited to announce that my first solo album, Tell it to the Dust, along with The Wounded Astronaut EP, will be released as a double LP via Sunset Club Records on June 1, 2024. This is the first time that either of these releases will be on vinyl, and it may very well be the last, so get it while you can! The label is doing a very limited run of 300 copies on random colored vinyl. The only way to get a copy is to order through Bandcamp. You can find a link to the release here.
2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Tell it to the Dust. I have many fond memories of the writing and recording of these songs. At the time I was living in Raleigh, NC and many of these songs were written when I was living with my old pal Matt Brown in his tiny house. The songs were fleshed out during jams with Jim Vincent (drums) as a duo and we soon added Bo Taylor (bass and guitar) and then Greg Elkins (keyboards and guitar) to the mix.
I moved to NYC in 2003 and got to recording the tracks from these releases soon after. All the basics were cut live live to tape with me on guitar (or piano) and vocals and Jud Ehrbar (Varnaline, Space Needle, Reservoir) on drums in two days at Fireproof in Red Hook, Brooklyn with Adama Lasus manning the controls. The studio was above an old Brooklyn firehouse and had a really special sound. Adam Lasus and I had worked together a number of times before and it was a smooth and productive couple of days. Adam let me use the front room of his studio as a place to work and I did a lot of the overdubs myself there and had a few special guests stop by to play and sing, including Kendall Meade (vocals, electric piano), Joan Wasser (violin, vocals), John Parker (electric and acoustic bass), Richard Buckner (acoustic guitar, electric piano), Tianna Kennedy (cello), Rob Ross (saxophone), and Jud Ehrbar (percussion and vocals). I later travelled back to Raleigh, NC for additional overdubs with Bo Taylor (electric guitar, bass), Greg Elkins (electric guitar, organ), Sara Bell (organ) and happened to catch my buddy Jay Farrar as he was passing through town after a gig and put him to work (slide guitar, organ, vocals). I later returned to Fireproof where John Agnello, assisted by Adam Lasus, mixed the album.
All of the songs were record as a piece and I struggled with which songs to include on Tell it to the Dust. The “leftovers” were released as The Wounded Astronaut EP, but any of the songs on the EP could have been on the full length. So, it seems fitting to have them all together as they were created.