New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Respected Dallas, TX-based singer/songwriter/producer/musician-of-many-trades is set to release a sprawling double-album, Somewhere South of Sane, this fall on Palo Santo Records. The release date and more details about the album will be announced soon. The 21 tracks that comprise the four-sidedSomewhere 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.
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 will be accompanied by new online video content. Bundle one, entitled North and set for release on June 1, 2018, will include a track from Somewhere South of Sane ("Relief") as well as a re-recording of 2015's "The Bullies Are Back" (assisted by the mind-bending instrumentation of guitarist Nick Earl, Nourallah's bandmate in the Travoltas and a musician he calls a "total freak genius."). The other track on the bundle will be "Totally Lost," a B-side that, along with "Relief," was written and recorded at HEK studios, home of the Dixie Chicks' Martie Maguire. In conjunction with the release of North, fans can check out the music video for "Relief," which premiered yesterday.
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 June 25th.
Two additional bundles are planned leading up to the release of the full album, and details for each will be announced soon.
"I took my sweet time making Somewhere South of Sane," Nourallah says, "so I figured why not continue the trend and methodically enjoy the pre-release months? I also had almost an entire extra album's worth of tracks I left off because a triple record felt excessive. I will be releasing that bonus material in each of the pre-album bundles we roll out."
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.
