New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today, Too Sad For The Public - the project helmed by StorySound Records founder Dick Connette - shares "G.
Burns in the Bottom (pt1)," the latest preview of the new album Vol. 2 - Yet and Still out July 28 on StorySound Records. Featuring lead vocals by Ana Egge, the track lines out the age-old battle of wills between staunchly unrepentant and the unrelenting ministrations of the armies of salvation. The ramshackle percussion and an almost oompah-like euphonium give it a jaunty feel as the song's narrator shrugs off the hymn-singing do-gooders in favor of a move to the "Home of the Blues," Memphis, TN.
Says Connette: "This takes off from an old string-band recording, "G.
Burns Is Gonna Rise Again" which was itself a parody of the 19th century gospel song "Dese Bones Shall Rise Again." The original "G. Burns" is a collection of unrelated floating folk couplets with the recurring resurrection refrain, but in the spoken intro the singer complains that he can't go down to the bottom anymore, because all they do there is sing religion at him. I turned my song into a dialog, where the sinner gets the first and last say, and the saints do all their preaching in the middle."
Yet and Still finds Too Sad For The Public boldly recontextualizing an array of traditional American musics, drawing out unexpected elements and radically uprooting songs to isolate unique portions of their DNA. The album features a wide range of collaborators, including yMusic's Rob Moose (Paul Simon, Phoebe Bridgers), Chaim Tannenbaum (Loudon Wainwright III, Kate & Anna McGarrigle), Steve Elson (Gov't Mule,
David Bowie), Steven Bernstein (Levon Helm,
Rufus Wainwright), Billy
Martin (Medeski
Martin & Wood) and heralded StorySound folk artist Ana Egge.
On Saturday, July 29, Egge will join Connette and Too Sad For The Public for a performance of selections from Vol. 2 - Yet and Still
Moments of sublime serendipity abound as Connette and his collaborators explore authorial elasticity in the American traditional and popular music, reveling in the gradual content shifts that songs undergo as they pass from performer to performer, generation to generation, audience to audience.
Lead single "Railroad Bill (pt2)" — which features vocals from Chaim Tannenbaum — gives a modern and hypnotic spin on a train robber ballad. Its galloping rhythm and harmonica choirs bring to mind a rustic, folklorically-minded version of NEU! — more naturalistic and rough-hewn but equally entrancing. Watch the video for "Railroad Bill (pt2)," directed by LA-based collage artist Lewis Klahr.
Dick Connette's fascination with folk songs goes back almost 40 years to when he shifted his focus from NYC's downtown avant garde scene to researching and performing traditional American music, he is probably best known as the founder of StorySound Records. The independent outfit has put out a GRAMMY-winning record by Loudon Wainwright III as well as acclaimed releases by Gabriel Kahane,
Margaret Glasby, Dan Tepfer, yMusic, and so many more
Throughout, Yet and Still is a celebration of the inventive permutations and idiosyncratic processes of American musics —as well as Connette's own imaginative approach to interpretation. You can preorder Too Sad For The Public's Vol. 2 - Yet and Still.
Vol. 2 - Yet and Still Tracklist:
1. Uncle Bunting (pt1)
Rob Moose - mandolin, violin, banjo, guitar, bass
2. Shake Sugaree
Ana Egge - vocal, guitar
Dick Connette - piano
Lorenzo Wolff - bass
Ethan Eubanks - drums
3. Hey Now (pt1)
Steven Bernstein - trumpet, vocal
Frank Greene - trumpet, vocal
Curtis Fowlkes - trombone, vocal
Jeffery Miller - trombone, vocal
Michael
Blake - tenor saxophone, vocal
Erik Lawrence - baritone saxophone, vocal
Marcus Rojas - tuba, vocal
Billy
Martin - drums/percussion, vocal
4. G.
Burns in the Bottom (pt1)
Ana Egge - lead vocal, guitar
Lucy Wainwright Roche - backing vocal
Suzzy Roche - backing vocal
Dick Connette - harmonium
Dan Levine - euphonium
Lorenzo Wolff - baritone guitar, bass
Bill Ruyle - footsteps, cymbal pair, bass drum
5. Uncle Bunting (pt2)
Chaim Tannenbaum - lead vocal, harmonica
Ana Egge - backing vocal
Rayna Gellert - backing vocal, violin, viola
6. Old Forty
Ana Egge - vocal, guitar
Dan Levine - trombone
Dick Connette - synth
Lorenzo Wolff - synth, bass
7. Railroad Bill (pt1)
Ana Egge - vocal, guitar
Dick Connette - piano, maracas
Lorenzo Wolff - baritone guitar, bass
Ethan Eubanks - shakers, drums
8. Uncle Bunting (pt3)
Steve Elson - piccolo, baritone sax, tenor sax
Curtis Fowlkes - trombone
Marcus Rojas - euphonium, tuba
Ethan Eubanks - orchestral bells, drums
9. Hey Now (pt2)
Ana Egge - lead vocal
Lucy Wainwright Roche - backing vocal
Suzzy Roche - backing vocal
Lorenzo Wolff - bass
Kory Grossman - percussion
Jeff Kraus - percussion
Paul Pizzuti - percussion
Ethan Eubanks - tambourine, drums
10. Railroad Bill (pt2)
Chaim Tannenbaum - vocal, harmonica
Ana Egge - rhythm guitar
Lorenzo Wolff - lead guitar, rhythm guitar, synth, bass
Dick Connette - cymbal crunch, synth
Ethan Eubanks - shakers
Bill Ruyle - bass drum rim clicks
11.
Train Your Child
Rayna Gellert - vocal, violin
Kieran Kane - guitar
12. G.
Burns in the Bottom (pt2)
Jacob Garchik - trombone, euphonium
Clark Gayton - trombone, euphonium
Dan Levine - trombone, euphonium
Marcus Rojas - tuba, euphonium
Jerome Jennings - tambourine, drums
