STREAM: “Shine On” –
https://soundcloud.com/blitzen-trapper/shine-on/
[media][/media]VIDEO: “Shine On” (Track Commentary) –
[media][/media]Today Blitzen Trapper share “Shine On,” the first official single from their seventh studio album, appropriately titled VII, out Sept. 30. Take a listen over at Paste, or get it as an instant gratification download when you pre-order the album. Their first release for Vagrant Records is full of the vivid folk-rock-campfire-tales frontman Eric Earley is so well known for. Earley is sharing the stories behind the songs on the record in a series of YouTube clips w/ track commentary, check out the story behind “Shine On” here. And be sure to check out the band’s full list of Fall tour dates below.
More about VII:
VII opens with “Feel The Chill,” a song that takes us down a crooked bend so dark and gloomy you can smell the heat and feel the humidity oppress you. “Each song starts from a small place, a headwater-like remembrance and then widens into a song. For instance, that old wreck of a shack buried in evergreen and murky darkness at the bend in the road up on Jackson Hill where we used to drink, never failed to give me a chill driving by in the old Impala for it’s implacable mystery,” Earley notes.
Tracks like “Thirsty Man” speak of love in a Dylan-esque fashion where Earley reveals “love like rain falls in the wasteland and slips thru the fingers – for love is a thing that cannot be held, only felt and released”. “Drive On Up” is a soulful, almost bluesy rendition of small town tales of quirkiness. “It seems you’re always driving on up to something.” Earley amuses, “into the mountains to see a girlfriend above the reservoir where she lives in a single wide with her mom and a cougar stalks us at fifty yards through the brush, she says to bang sticks but never look it in the eye.”
VII moves effortlessly from track to track, allowing Earley to paint the colorful pictures that play in our head while singing along. “…there are those songs I keep writing over and over again, “Ever Loved Once” with all its regrets and tragic lost love, “Don’t be a Stranger” its hopeful cousin but they all still point to the same worn out place in the heart of old E. Earley. And hey, we all have that place, that worn spot on the heart like the chew canister circle on the back pocket of blue jeans, or that one shred in the green felt of the table where you ground the stick in too hard… May these songs minister in ways mysterious and eternal, or at least maybe make you shake a hip.”
BLITZEN TRAPPER
09/17 Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room
09/18 St. Louis, MO – Old Rock House
09/19 Lexington, KY – Cosmic Charlie’s
09/21 – 09/22 Bristol, VA – Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion
09/23 Nashville, TN – Mercy Lounge
09/24 Birmingham, AL – The Bottletree
09/25 Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
09/26 Saxapahaw, NC – The Haw River Ballroom
09/27 Washington, DC – Black Cat
09/28 Hartford, CT – Arch Street Tavern
09/29 Boston, MA – Royale
09/30 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
10/01 Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
10/03 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/04 Buffalo, NY – Tralf Music Hall
10/05 Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
10/07 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
10/08 Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall
10/09 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
10/10 Fargo, ND – The Aquarium
10/12 Bozeman, MT – The Filling Station
10/13 Missoula, MT – Top Hat
11/05 San Francisco, CA – The Regency Ballroom
11/06 Los Angeles, CA – The Troubadour
11/08 Pioneertown, CA – Pappy and Harriet’s
11/09 La Jolla, CA – Porter’s Pub
11/10 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress
11/12 Austin, TX – The Parish
11/13 Dallas, TX – Club Dada
11/15 Denver, CO – Bluebird
11/16 Salt Lake City, UT – The State Room
11/20 Leavenworth, WA – The Leavenworth Festhalle
11/21 Bellingham, WA – The Wild Buffalo
11/22 Vancouver, BC – Biltmore
11/23 Seattle, WA – Neptune
11/30 Portland, OR – Doug Fir (2 shows)
litzen Trapper
VII
(Vagrant)
Street Date: Sept. 30, 2013
Pre-order here
Track List:
1. Feel The Chill
2. Shine On
3. Ever Loved Once
4. Thirsty Man
5. Valley of Death
6. Oregon Geography
7. Neck Tatts, Cadillacs
8. Earth (Fever Called Love)
9. Drive On Up
10. Heart Attack
11. Faces Of You
12. Don’t Be A Stranger
BLITZEN TRAPPER LINKS:
Facebook/ Twitter/ Label/ Official site