photo by Sharon Alagna
Karen Elson has announced April 7th as the release date for Double Roses a follow-up album to 2010’s The Ghost Who Walks. Double Roses is being released by H.O.T Records Ltd in the U.S. and 1965 Records everywhere else. Although it’s been almost seven years since Elson last released a full-length record she has remained constantly busy working on various musical projects including performing “Ashes To Ashes” with Michael Stipe at the David Bowie tribute concert last year, dueting with Ren Harvieu on the stunning single ‘The Train Song’ and recording a haunting version of Lyle Lovett’s ‘If I Had A Boat’ for the “Still Alice” movie soundtrack.
The first track from Double Roses to be made available is “Distant Shore” featuring Benmont Tench on keys and Laura Marling on backing vocals.
Double Roses was named for a Sam Shepard poem and features some major collaborations including The Black Keys’ Pat Carney, Father John Misty, Laura Marling, Benmont Tench, Pat Sansone (Wilco), Nate Wolcott (Bright Eyes), Paul Cartwright and Dhani Harrison. Emotionally struck by the English references in Shepard’s poem; Elson has also incorporated a spoken word sample of the poem into the title track with Shephard’s blessing who she got in touch with via her friend and bandmate Jackson Smith’s mother, the poet/musician Patti Smith.
“I wrote maybe six songs but I’m very instinctual as a person and I knew that there was one puzzle piece missing that I hadn’t tapped into the deepest part myself. I knew I needed to pull that out if I was going to make the record I needed to make.” The turning point was “Distant Shore”, and after that the floodgates were open, and things she’d kept bottled up for years began pouring out, detailing the emotional geography of her heart, always hovering somewhere between uncertainty and regret, without truly landing on either. But in the end finding out who she really was as a person. “At the end of the writing the album, I felt liberated. I felt free. I felt like me,” – Karen Elson
Double Roses Tracklist
1. Wonder Blind
2. Double Roses
3. Call Your Name*
4. Come Hell And High Water
5. The End
6. Raven
7. Why Am I Waiting
8. A Million Stars*
9. Wolf
10. Distant Shore
(*co-produced by Pat Carney)
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