Singer and songwriter Mary Timony has shared her new song and music video for “The Guest,” which is from the artist’s upcoming album Untame the Tiger that will be out on February 23 by Merge. The stripped back acoustic instrumentation of “The Guest” conjures Sweetheart-era Byrds. Recorded in Baltimore at J. Robbins’ Magpie Cage studio, “The Guest” features David Christian on drums and Brian Betancourt on bass, with Betsy Wright and Dennis Kane singing backup.
Timony describes it as song sung directly to loneliness: “I was imagining loneliness as a house guest who keeps knocking on your door. I thought it would be funny to say loneliness is the only one who always comes back.” The accompanying video for “The Guest” was made by Timony‘s longtime friend and collaborator Brett Vapnek and the video was filmed around Santa Barbara.
In the press release Timony talks about working with Vapnek: “The first video Brett and I made together was in about 1995 for the Helium song ‘Honeycomb,’ and later she also did one for ‘Dr. Cat’ (on The Golden Dove). I also acted in a short movie she made called Dream Machine.”
For more than 30 years Timony has cut a distinctive path through the world of independent music. Praised by Rolling Stone as one of the “Greatest Guitarists of All Time,” the artist has built her reputation off of “rewriting the guitar rulebook.” Untame the Tiger marks Timony’s fifth solo album and is a startling document of an artist fully coming into her own power during the fourth decade of her career, which is the product of lessons learned during life altering struggle.
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