AMERICAN MUSIC Club’s Mark Eitzel, “America’s greatest living lyricist” according to The Guardian has just released a new solo album and will play Galway next month.
Mark Eitzel will play Strange Brew at the Róisín Dubh on Thursday November 12 at 8pm, accompanied by American Music Club arranger and keyboardist Marc Capelle. At the gig he will play tracks from his new album Klamath (released November 6 on Decor Records ) as well as American Music Club songs.
Klamath was recorded by the Klamath river, in a small cabin in the middle of the woods and way off the grid in Northern California. It’s a stripped down, back to basics album, featuring just Eitzel’s voice, an acoustic guitar, and minimal instrumentation.
“I wandered around for a couple of weeks in this untouched forest and decided I would make a record that included the stillness I heard there,” Eitzel said. “I had not felt this way for a long time. Klamath is a simple record. I am a simple man. Or I wanna be. It’s the kind of record I would want to listen to.”
The basic tracks were written and recorded in Klamath and finished off in San Francisco with contributions from The Hold Steady’s Franz Nicolay, Eitzel’s old AMC buddy Marc Capelle, and Kelley Stoltz drummer Dave Douglas.
The pastoral, laid back, late night sparse feel to the album harkens back to Eitzel’s folk influences of Nick Drake and John Martyn, and early AMC. The only electric guitar featured is in Eitzel’s tribute to Ohio (where Eitzel grew up ), new wave hero Ronald Koal.
Eitzel is now working on a new American Music Club album, a record with Peter Buck, and a musical in London called Marine Parade co-written with Simon Stephens.
Tickets are available from the Róisín Dubh and Zhivago.
