GRAHAM PARKER: "Your Country"

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 7:56 pm

http://www.bloodshotrecords.com/announcements.php3

-GRAHAM PARKER: "Your Country" A roots based record from an honest to goodness legend. Truly inspired song writing backed by a rollicking band. We are aghast that we have been allowed to put out this gem by one of the grand daddies of punk and English pub rock. March 2004

A rope leash · Post by **A rope leash** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 8:44 pm

Amazing. I was just listening to disc one of the Passion is No Ordinary Word anthology.

His early stuff, like Back to School Days and Heat Treatment has a roots rock feel to it. He seems to have had more voice to work with back then.

I wasn't sure...is Your Country something old or something new?

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 5:55 am

It's a new one, keep an eye on this
http://www.grahamparker.net

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 4:22 pm

Thanks for the outstanding news!

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 7:20 am

Here are details about the album. Incredibly, someone's already sold a copy on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... otohosting

migdd · Post by **migdd** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 10:35 am

Can't wait. . .Graham's albums just keep getting better as he barrels to obscurity. It's a shame but I'm sure Graham is not losing any sleep over it. . .he seems to continue to be charged up to make consistantly great albums. I see the new release includes a duet with Lucinda Williams and a "revisited" version to the great "Crawling From The Wreckage." Should be interesting! I had the good fortune to see Graham and the Figgs perform twice in 2002 and both shows were fantastic!!!

Uncomplicated · Post by **Uncomplicated** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 12:14 am

This sounds great!

And for anyone who hasn't heard it. Check out my personal fav gp album. "Stick To Me"......classic!

Songs like "Stick To Me", "Problem Child", "Watch the Moon Come Down", "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down", make this His Best IMO!

migdd · Post by **migdd** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 12:26 am

Stick To Me was the 1st Graham Parker album I ever heard back in 1977. I then immediately went out and bought Howlin' Wind and Heat Treatment. A few months later, he released Squeezing Out Sparks! As much as I love those early albums, I really think Graham started to strike creative gold with Struck By Lightning in the early 90's. After that came a string of top-notch releases including 12 Haunted Episodes ("Disney's America" may be the best song he's ever written!), Acid Bubblegum and 2001's fantastic Deepcut To Nowhere. I highly recommend these to anyone who has not yet heard them!

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 5:21 am

Graham Parker always triggers an unfortunate mental association with Ray Parker Jnr and that song that goes, "makes me want to grab my guee-tar, and play with it all night long..."

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 6:15 am

http://www.punkhart.com/gparker/thoughts.shtml
-posted March 12, 2004
©Copyrigh t 2004 Ellisclan LTD. All rights reserved.
Please excuse my silence regarding the about to be released "Your Country," but luckily, certain sections of the press are doing the bragging for me.

The record will be in record stores (if there are any left by the time it comes out) on March 9th, although I expect most of you already have your illegal, purloined advance copies or downloaded files or whatever.

To give you some idea of the albums' beginnings, see below a little blurb I did for the Bloodshot press kit.

There will be a tour to promote the album starting on April 16th in Philadelphia. Dates are still being worked on. Please keep an eye on the "Live" section of this site for details.

The band will consist of: Tom Freund on a bunch of different instruments, Drew Glackin on bass and lap steel, and Konrad Meissner of drums. I guess I'll be singing and playing guitar.

We will be known as: GRAHAM PARKER and the TWANG THREE

YOUR COUNTRY

(album blurb for Bloodshot)

Being the least spontaneous person in the world, it was with some trepidation that I found myself on a flight to Los Angeles in March 2002 to make the most hastily conceived album of my career.

My friend, the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, Tom Freund, had enthused about a studio he'd been using recently, a place with a very cool sounding 16-track tape machine and not a pro-tools rig in sight.

Tom said he was available to work with me and that he could find a great drummer, and the studio would love to have me in there.

"Is there an Indian restaurant nearby?" I queried. "Yes," Tom assured me.

"A Mexican?" "Of course," said Tom irritably. "It's LA."

"A liquor store?"

"I'll check."

"Will they have a constant supply of gorp in the studio at all times?" I asked as my final request, wishing to test the veracity of this establishment to the hilt. "What the f...?" gasped Tom.

"Just kidding, Tom!" I yelled. "Let's do this !"

But what really clinched the deal was the sixty-one buck a night Travelodge McCabe's Guitar Store hooked me up with and the fact that both Tom and the studio engineer volunteered to pick me up every day and drive me to work, thus negating the need to spend on a rental car.

The music? Right, well, I had enough songs stashed away for two albums, which gave me three choices: pick the typical rock/pop fare and do a more obvious GP album; mix everything up and have an interesting or completely messy hodgepodge; or select exclusively (OK, almost exclusively) the country flavored tunes and go that way, no compromise.

Knowing that the modern media is not interested in substance, only novelty, I figured the latter would be the winning gambit.

And so, within two months of our conversation, I was on my way to LA with no swimming trunks and no suntan lotion, assured that the tight schedule I had planned would allow zero time for frolicking on the beach.

All tracks were recorded with live vocals. Because of the studio's small size, Don Heffington, the drummer, got the booth and I had to sing in the control room standing directly behind the engineer with Tom sitting off to one side playing bass. I played acoustic guitar and sang, relying only on the sound of the studio monitors. No headphones were used by either me or Tom when recording the basic tracks. The three of us rehearsed the material for a few hours the day before. Most songs were captured in one take, two at most.

I played all the acoustic and electric guitar parts, did backing vocals and played harmonica. Tom played electric and upright bass, a variety of keyboards and also did backing vocals. A lap steel player named Ben Peeler worked on a couple of tracks and Lucinda Williams stopped by to do a duet on "Cruel Lips."

The entire recording took 13 days to complete, mixes and all. This was three days longer than I had scheduled.

GP

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 83-7321725

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 25-3698858

A rope leash · Post by **A rope leash** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 8:39 am

I heard Cruel Lips on the radio a few weeks back. I think I was in Iowa.

For some reason, his voice sounded more like Bob Dylan. Usually, he kind of sounds like Elvis. I was very confused.

This story Graham tells sounds a bit like my life: Cheap hotels and not enough time for the beach. Of course, I don't get to collaborate with Lucinda, but Graham makes it seem like he's down here in the trenches with the rest of us working folk.

I wonder if the marquee outside the Travelodge said "Welcome Graham Parker"...

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 8:43 am

Stick to Me was also the first GP record I ever heard--it came with stickers! and that just cracked me up. I pulled it out of the cutout bin in the bookstore at East TN State U on a weekend visit to my sister. Heat in Harlem, Watch the Moon. The Raid. New York Shuffle. I loved that album. Now, I'm off to get a 2nd on my house, so I can fill in the blanks on GP.

migdd · Post by **migdd** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:38 pm

MS, I bought my copy of STM as a cut-out (!) a couple of months after it's release in a tiny record store in my hometown of Chattanooga. A few months later, after the release of Squeezing Out Sparks, I was lucky enough to see Graham and the Rumur open for Journey (!!!) in Louisville, KY. Got to meet Graham and the whole band outside the tour bus after the show and they recognized us as their lone screaming fans in the front row of the general admission show(!!!!) Imaging being the lone quartet of GP fans pressed against the stage in an auditorium full of totally clueless and confused Journey fans.

I never realized then how good I had it (!!!!!)

Jackson Doofster · Post by **Jackson Doofster** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 3:21 am

GP is a real music God

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:08 am

do you suppose he regrets choosing the Musical God Career Path as opposed to the Love God Career Path? Maybe he didn't read his form carefully...

great story, migdd! doesn't Kurt Vonnegut have a word for these kinds of experiences? I can't remember.

migdd · Post by **migdd** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:33 am

MS, I think Vonnegut did have a word for it but it's been 20+ years since I've read KV and my memory (or what's left of it) isn't up to it today. Still remember the GP show pretty vividly, though!

taz · Post by **taz** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 2:09 pm

Think the vonnegut word might be karass...

Oh, and here's an article I read on CNN today, thought you all might like it...

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/0 ... index.html

migdd · Post by **migdd** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:24 am

Cool article. Thanks, Taz!

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 12:21 pm

taz is right as usual. GP is the wampeter around which the karass revolves. right? fixing to read Cat's Cradle again.

And Your Country is fantastic. rush right out to get it!!!

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 6:50 am

Geep finally has a messageboard like this one. http://punkhart.com/phpBB2/index.php

Elvis Costello Fan Forum

GRAHAM PARKER: "Your Country"

GRAHAM PARKER: "Your Country"

Mr. Parker

gp

I ain't bought it yet...