You haven’t heard much news from me lately. It’s been a quiet lovely spring at home for a change. But hibernation is over, and it’s time for something fierce. Something fiercer.
Next month I am going to start recording a new album. My ninth album.
A Really Big Serious Studio Album.
It will be my first Really Big Serious Studio Album since Something Fierce.
This album will have my biggest and bravest new songs, the deepest and toughest feelings, and the true sorts of words we all need to hear. There will be one million drums.* There will be acres of harmonies.** There will be holler and stomp, there will be risk and momentum. There will be clapping of hands and banging on every kitchen implement. There will be history and fantasy and double-meanings and triple-rhymes and visitations by ghosts past, present, and future. There will be typewriter and rainstick and Zippy and ocarinas and bells. My maturing deepening travel-worn voice will be on it, sounding all new.***
And there will be a lot of your voices on it by the end.
The album title:
Standing Stones
I’m spending this June in Austin, TX recording the bones of the project with Scott Barkan on guitar and Bryan Ray at the helm as co-producer — some of you know these guys. The Austin sessions will kick off a massive/familiar/exhausting/thrilling labor of love that will take a lot of months, I don’t know how many. You can look forward to super loopy 3am tweets and questionable food choices as I chisel out the meaning in the music. (Spaghettios cold from the can with cabernet? Really, Marian? We all know malbec would pair better.****)
I am gonna need your help, guys. To the Donors’ Circle: I’ll start presenting you material at a faster and faster clip, and in June you’ll hear a lot from me. And I’d love to hear a lot back from you, because this is your hour — this is getting to the fun part of being a member. To the not-yet-Donors’-Circle — if this post makes you super excited, get in the Donors’ Circle! Or participate in one of the upcoming fundraisers. And be sure you’re on my email list, that’s really really important and a very small sacrifice.
TEXAS – CALIFORNIA – WASHINGTON – ALASKA. I am playing *preview shows* in a few cities, and if you’re there, I really need you to come and give me feedback and help me road-test the songs. Normal shows this year won’t have most of the new material, but these shows will, and they’ll be kind of experimental. Get on the email list (with your zip code!) to know details like venues & ticket links:
- AUSTIN on June 12, Blackerby Violin Shop (full band show!)
HOUSTON— postponed but just until autumn!- DALLAS on June 14 at Poor David’s (full band show!)
- LOS ANGELES July 8 at Room 5 (with awesome friends)
- SAN DIEGO July 10 at 98 Bottles (with awesome friends)
- SEATTLE July 28 at the Jewel Box (tickets!)
- ANCHORAGE September date TBA
Show details for most of these are already posted over at https://mariancall.com/shows/.
I’ll provide the music if you guys will come and listen. If you know a big empty concert room we can use, Houston denizens, let me know — in all of these cities I need your ears ever so much, I need your feedback — and I need your butts in seats, next to the butts of your coworkers and your gaming group and your grandparents.
Okay I’m gonna stop announcing now and get back to writing. Art. Art art art art.
The plane tickets are bought, the studio is booked, the microphones are being selected — and you and me, we are all boarding for a helluva flight. There may be bumps. Tray tables up and locked, everyone.
If you’re excited, let me know. Better yet, let someone else know. Watch this space.
Yours always, fiercely,
Marian Call
*If you like ‘Temporal Dominoes‘ and ‘ESB‘ and ‘Ina Flew the Coop‘ and my other songs full of drums, then you will be pleased with the direction I’m taking.
**If you like the weird awesome harmonies in ‘Nerd Anthem‘ you’ll be happy to know there are gonna be more of those than ever before. With actual backup singers.
***New and badass. I like my voice now more than I ever have. I discovered bourbon and toured 50 states after Something Fierce was mostly recorded — wish it had been the other way around.
****Really.
