New York, NY (Top40 Charts) In the fall of 2017,
David Huckfelt left behind the familiar-the comfort of his home in Minneapolis; the camaraderie of his critically acclaimed band, The Pines; the luxuries of heat, hot water, and electricity-and relocated to Isle Royale, America's most remote and one of the least visited national parks in mighty Lake Superior. Six hours by boat off the Michigan coast, Isle Royale is the largest island in the world's largest freshwater lake, an isolated stretch of wilderness seemingly forgotten by the 20th century, home to shipwrecks, abandoned mines, and one the country's longest-standing natural research projects observing moose and wolves in the wild.
There, as an Artist In Residence selected by the
National Park Service, Huckfelt wrote in solitude, channeling the mysterious and lonesome island's spirits into the stunning "Stranger Angels". Featuring vocals from Sylvan Esso's Amelia Meath, "Stranger Angels" contemplates man's impact on nature with the narrator longing for a place "where (he) won't make the greedy richer", and the fierce grip of climate change manifests in lyrics like, "Wild mustangs starve in the hills outside Las Vegas... and the West is burning like a lake of fire."
In addition to Meath, Huckfelt chose to surround himself with a dream team of musicians including drummer/co-producer J.T. Bates (Andrew Bird,
Mason Jennings), bassist
Darin Gray (Tweedy,
William Tyler), and guitaristsMichael Rossetto, Erik Koskinen, and Jeremy Ylvisaker, as well as sample wizard Andrew Broder of Fog.
"Stranger Angels" follows Huckfelt's latest album with The Pines, 2016's Above The Prairie. Hailed by No Depressionas "dazzling," drawing the attention of Rolling Stone's
David Fricke who called The Pines, "poignant stark country" and earning high praise in both the US and Europe, with MOJO calling it, "their most beautiful yet" and Minnesota NPR station The Current raving that it, "hits so close to the gut that it reminds us that they are truly a singular band. Huckfelt just finished a run opening for
Trampled By Turtles and continues to tour through the fall.
