Grant-Lee Phillips - The Narrows (2016)

The concentrated nexus of romance, recollection, historic struggles and tragedies, and peerless craftsmanship - coupled with the hopes, fears, and isolation that accompany transition - formed the backdrop of The Narrows, Phillips' latest dispatch on Yep Roc Records. Bathed in a woody, warmly reverberating sonic signature, the album's thirteen songs are marked by longing and a resolute sense of purpose: As though hurling yourself full-force into the unknown is as sensible as any other more commonly prescribed course. After all, what feels unknown may be residing just below the surface - should you be willing to dig for it and be open to discovery. The power and substance so ably, tangibly imparted by The Narrows is humble validation of Phillips' instincts and his subsequent decision to uproot, relocating to Nashville from California. One of the first people to reach out to Phillips in Tennessee was drummer Jerry Roe - grandson of eccentric guitar virtuoso and songwriter Jerry Reed. Phillips had met him years before, when Roe told him, "If you ever want to make a record down here, I'm in - and I'll help you find the right players who'll get your stuff. But I wouldn't move here." "About a year later," Phillips recalls, "I rang him up to say that I had ignored half of his advice, but wanted to take him up on the other half." Roe introduced him to multi-instrumentalist Lex Price, who plays electric and upright bass throughout The Narrows, in addition to a bit of guitar and banjo. "As a trio, we were off and running." Tracking live, vocals and all, from the studio floor of Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Studio, the core trio display uncanny sensitivity - mining their unfamiliarity with one another as a virtue that lends depth and humanity to Phillips' observations. Thus far, Grant-Lee Phillips' new home has lived up to its promise, the change of scenery producing an evocative, profound record that extends the city's legacy of homespun craftsmanship and off-the-cuff recording methods. "True to his word," Phillips concludes, "Jerry Roe turned me on to this other Nashville, which I suspected might exist - the kind of creative community I was yearning for. There's a reason that Bob Dylan and Neil Young were drawn here to make seminal albums… but wherever you're coming from, music has a way of transcending a lot of boundaries. It needs no passport, but if it did, it would have a stamp from every place on the green earth…"

TRACKLIST
01. Tennessee Rain (4:45)
02. Smoke And Sparks (3:39)
03. Moccasin Creek (2:38)
04. Cry Cry (4:18)
05. Holy Irons (4:34)
06. Yellow Weeds (5:12)
07. Loaded Gun (2:41)
08. Rolling Pin (3:27)
09. Taking On Weight In Hot Springs (3:40)
10. Just Another River Town (4:03)
11. No Mercy In July (4:41)
12. San Andreas Fault (5:42)
13. Find My Way (4:52)