American lyricist, track and field coach and non-fiction author, Joe Puleo has joined forces with singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, Big Star, R.E.M) for a new five-song EP. Ten Years To Home: Ken Stringfellow Imagines Puleo, is set to be released June 18th.
Puleo is marking his first sonic release with Ten Years To Home, but he is no stranger to creative output, having been a successful writer all his life. He has been vying for ways to craft music with others for some time, but nothing came so easily as his material with Stringfellow. Their collaboration bore a ripe new EP that is inspired by track and field national champion Gabriele Gruenwald, and her ultimate passing from cancer in 2019.
“Our first and initially the only song I planned to work together with Ken on was the song I wrote in honor of Gabriele Gruenwald, “Not Today,”” says Puleo via a press statement. “I had read a story about her death that included the anecdote regarding when the doctor told her husband that Gabriele’s vitals were poor and she was probably going to die soon, he relayed the message to her. She responded, ‘Not Today.’ The voiceover before the song is a quote from Gabriele, ‘I hope people see that you can still make something beautiful and powerful out of a bad situation.”
The EP opens with the jangle pop, “Overcoming Gravity.” Full of poetic beauty, the harmonious tune evokes senses of unrelenting freedom and a brimming hopeful attitude. “I wrote this song in response to a writing challenge with our house painter/friend/musician,” says Puleo in a press statement. “I thought it would be cool to write an EP called the House Painting Chronicles, so we agreed to finish a song each by the time he finished painting the kitchen. At the time the song was finished, I wasn’t sure what it was about or where the idea came from. Ultimately, it’s about owning your own shit and maturing. I still have little understanding of why I wrote the lyrics at the time I did.”
“Once Ken agreed to do an EP, and selected the songs that resonated with him, the direction of the project was obvious to me,” recalls Puleo in a press statement. “Like Odysseus took ten years to return to home from the Trojan war, it’s been ten years since I was divorced. A wise friend told me it would take ten years to fully regain my equilibrium. I would agree. I’m getting remarried a week after the EP is released (the first day of the US Olympic Track and Field Trials.) Also, like Gabriele Gruenwald, my son, Gabriel, is nick-named Gabe. This project seems to be destined.”
Check out the track list for Ten Years To Home: Ken Stringfellow Imagines Puleo below. For more on Ken Stringfellow, check out his solo record Danzig In The Moonlight.
Ten Years To Home: Ken Stringfellow Imagines Puleo Tracklist:
- “Overcoming Gravity”
- “The Strongest Man”
- “Measured In Threes”
- “My Odyssey”
- “Not Today”
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