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LP
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WS 004LP
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$26.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 10/22/2021
"As soon as we heard the opening line of the near-11 minute cosmic-country road epic, 'West Texas Trilogy', 'I can smell gasoline and tacos...' we knew we had to release this one" Jerry David DeCicca's fourth solo album, The Unlikely Optimist and His Domestic Adventures, is an anti-Hallmark ode to positivity set in the Texas Hill Country where he lives. Dark gray in one corner, silly in another, humorous but always human, it features Augie Meyers (Sir Douglas Quintet) on Vox Continental and squeezebox, Ralph White (Bad Livers) on violin and kalimaba, Frank "The Wild Jalapeno" Rodarte (Doug Sahm) on tenor sax, and JDD's buddies, electric guitarist Don Cento (Sarah Jaffee), bassist Canaan Faulkner (Black Swans, Will Beeley), drummer Jovan Karcic (Scrawl), and his partner, Eve Searls, on backing and duet vocals. Some of the songs: "I See Horizons" is a mediation that peaks over the next ledge; "Coffee Black" is a wake-up call to mellowing out; "Texas Toad" finds joy in the little creatures among us; "West Texas Trilogy" is a road song that trances and traces poverty, nature, memory and music along the border to Big Bend; "Quiet Life" just sits on the front porch. DeCicca's day-job is as a provider of vocational rehabilitation services (which means he works with individuals with disabilities to obtain and maintain competitive and integrated employment in their communities), as well as recording, producing and compiling music for lost legends of country music like Will Beeley, Elyse Weinerg and Bob Martin, working for labels such as Numero Group and Tompkins Square. "My whole life, I've struggled with anxiety and depression. But through music, people who love me, and meaningful work, I've gathered enough light to keep getting out of bed. And, in my own way, I've gradually become a happier person, despite the garbage world that maybe we've always lived in. This is a record about self-reflection and gratitude, but not in a cheesy way." Considering this one was recorded pre-pandemic, it has almost become the perfect pandemic record -- an ode to the simple pleasures of life, reflecting on our role on this wild sphere, and holding on tight to the ones you love. Housed in the beautiful artwork of Jeb Loy Nichols.
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WS 001LP
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The Time To Come is the first release from Worried Songs and the striking debut from twenty-one-year-old Chicago resident Eli Winter, noted as one of the Guardian's "artists to watch in 2020". These masterfully composed instrumental pieces for six-string, twelve-string, and electric solo guitar showcase the raw talent of this young guitar powerhouse. In The Time To Come, Winter remembers the dead, considers the dynamic nature of memory, and attempts to chronicle the nearly inexpressible difficulty of processing loss. Winter began recording sessions in Houston immediately after Hurricane Harvey, and this album's turbulent emotional landscape is in some ways a response to the devastation of the storm. The record revolves around its title track, a meditation on the passing of a close friend. In the days after her death, Winter wrote a long piece for guitar in which every part would feel essential. "I wanted to conjure her through the music," Winter says. "This song is the closest thing I have to a memory of her." He calls it aspirational: "How can you maintain hope in the face of grief?" The Time To Come is rich, warm and evocative, marking an ambitious debut from a young guitarist. Originally released on a tiny-run of now long-gone cassette tapes, The Time To Come finally sees the light of day on vinyl, housed in the bucolic American folk art of Albert Gray. "His debut album is really sublime." --Laura Snapes, The Guardian "Eli Winter is one of the brightest new lights in the world of guitar music today." --Record Crates United "Eli Winter's The Time To Come is a remarkably assured debut ... Every moment is earned, every note rings out with warmth and wonder. Beautiful stuff." --Tyler Wilcox, Aquarium Drunkard
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WS 002LP
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Joseph Allred, or occasionally known as his alter-perspective, Blind Faulkner, is a Tennessee-born multi-instrumentalist, now residing in Massachusetts, who has received critical acclaim for his seemingly endless slew of wonderful records, most of which showcase his talent for all things stringed. Here, Worried Songs presents the initially private-pressed masterwork, The True Light, taking its name from the Gospel of John, a haunting lament for solo-harp guitar. Recorded shortly after receiving the instrument, The True Light documents his exploration of the harp guitar. The five songs found on The True Light bleed like a river, flowing from one to the next in waves of immense beauty, melancholia and yearning, reflecting on spirituality and belonging in its many forms. Strong Basho vibes on this one, yet, as always, Joseph expands and transcends on the ghosts of primitive-past, forging his own path. In short, this is the real deal. "If you don't know Allred already, you will soon." --Byron Coley "Each time I've seen Joseph Allred play a concert, I've choked up. Whether working in improvisation or composition, for harmonium, stringed instruments or voice, their music reveals a deep knowledge of diverse musical idioms secular and religious, with the sort of quiet force that comes from the acquisition of this knowledge, and their performances are striking and brave, simultaneously unadorned and rich as to suggest collaborations with realms beyond our own. The True Light retains these qualities: like Basho or Rose, it's uncompromising; like sacred musics, stately; like the music of so many American masters, it plows ahead on its terms and gives and gives." --Eli Winter "... fierce, raw and deeply moving." --Pop Matters "... standing on the shoulders of American folk music traditions, he generates a tension not far removed from the melodramas of the German new wave director. Folk music, not for the coffee shop singalong, but for a lonesome trek through a wilderness increasingly invaded by a brutal modern world." --Spectrum Culture
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WS 003LP
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2021 restock. Worried Songs's third release is the debut solo LP from Matthew J Rolin. Originally released on the inimitable Feeding Tube records in 2019 and very quickly out-of-print, this pressing for UK and Europe will continue to showcase Matthew as one of the most creative, versatile, and powerful proponents honing their craft in the canon of the American primitive (and beyond) today. Cutting his chops in a haze of punk, noise, and psychedelic projects and bands in and out of Illinois and Ohio, that misspent youth can still be heard in these nine achingly beautiful compositions of solo concert steel string guitar. This is true outsider music, easily transcending the tired list of American-primitive masters -- it is ragged and rustic, tired and angry, beautiful and hopeful music for these often-hopeless times. Very few copies of this LP made it to Europe last time so quit goofing around. New LPs from this Ohio powerhouse (alongside the recently released and totally incredible duo record with Jen Powers on dulcimer) are incoming so get swatting up and quick. "While the rainy spirit and homespun quality of Rolin's music separates him from more academic fingerstyle contemporaries, he can't quite be classified with other unplugged noise dudes, either. There are echoes of Bill Orcutt's shattered blues in the dizzy rumble of 'Rivets' and a stripped-down reading of Ryley Walker's freefalling astral pop on 'Neverendingness,' but Rolin's songs never ramp up or even attempt to launch. Instead, they trudge steadily forward. A soft argument between hope and defeat runs through the album, and Rolin presents it with the calm resolve of someone who's probably sat alone with an acoustic guitar as the first of five acts at a basement gig. Unconcerned with virtuosic technique or reincarnating the ghosts of past guitar heroes, Rolin's overcast instrumentals convey the reality of his own encounters with folk blues." --Fred Thomas, Pitchfork "Rolin's talents as a solo player are immediately clear from the first note he plays. If you get a chance to see him don't pass it up. Nor should you pass up this chance to score his first long player while it's hot off the presses." --Byron Coley
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