New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Respected Dallas, TX-based singer/songwriter/producer/musician-of-many-trades Salim Nourallah is set to release a sprawling double-album, Somewhere South of Sane, this fall on Palo Santo Records. In advance of the album release, Nourallah plans to put out four pre-album "bundles" that will include tracks from the album as well as previously recorded but unreleased material or acoustic re-imaginings of tracks from past Nourallah albums. Each bundle, (EP) will be accompanied by new online video content.
Bundle two, entitled West, is set for release on June 29, 2018. Included on this release are two tracks that will also appear on Somewhere South of Sane - "Moving Man" and "Going Through The Motions," as well as a bonus track from the album sessions called "We Were Made to Fall Apart." The video accompanying this bundle is a clip for the song "Moving Man," which was shot entirely by Nourallah's 8-year-old and 14-year-old kids. It will premiere the week of release.
Nourallah breaks down the stories behind the songs on West. "The terminally busy are only interested in busyness," he says. "Sometimes I find myself caught up in ceaseless activity because it distracts from and numbs a multitude of other unpleasant things. 'Moving Man' is a rumination on such things." Also delving into the everyday, "Going Through The Motions" was actually inspired by a movie. "There's a surreal film I love called 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen' where
Robin Williams plays a character called King Moon whose head is literally detached from his body, floating around above it while he's bickering with and then fooling around with his wife," Nourallah says. "It's simultaneously disconcerting and hilarious. I found myself often feeling like King Moon. My body was doing all the usual things - running on a treadmill, making lunch, writing checks to creditors - but my head might as well have been on Pluto. To defeat the feeling, I started writing this song. It exists in order to disprove its premise." The bonus track finds Nourallah grappling with the declining health of a loved one. "Having been diagnosed with Alzheimer's over a year ago, my mother currently lives in a nursing home," he explains. "'We Were Made to Fall Apart' came out of my attempts to internally deal with seeing one of the kindest people I have ever known suffer like this."
Previously announced bundle one, North (out June 1, 2018), and West precede two additional bundles - details for each of the remaining two bundles will be announced soon. The four EPs give fans a sneak peek into what is in store for them on Somewhere South of Sane; the release date and more details about the album will be announced in June. The 21 tracks that comprise the four-sided Somewhere South of Sane are what Salim calls, "the work of a functional crazy person." Nourallah is equal parts songwriter and producer, creating a shifting sonic landscape that could easily be mistaken for the work of multiple artists. This is the sound of someone trying to save his own mind. Nourallah did — in the end — and created nothing short of a musical odyssey.
As a solo artist, Nourallah has long mined the terrain between catchy and devastating. After gaining initial acclaim with the Denton, TX-based Nourallah Brothers, he went on to release six solo albums. His debut, Polaroid (2004), had Rolling Stone calling him "a singer-songwriter who can stop time." 2015's Skeleton Closet was cited by
Dusted as a "masterful balance of the said and the unsaid... like a good novel, full of implications and shadowy contradictions and complexities." As a producer, Nourallah boasts quite an impressive C.V. of production credits (Old 97's, the Damnwells, Rhett Miller, the Deathray Davies). He's also been involved in numerous other projects, including co-founding and running A & R for the Palo Santo music group. Over the years, his work on both sides of the sound booth has won him an armful of Dallas Observer music awards. That, and the consistent quality of Salim Nourallah's music, have proven that some musicians actually can continue to stay relevant.
Salim Nourallah online:
Website: https://salimnourallah.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/salimnourallah
Twitter: https://twitter.com/salimnourallah
