Jack Grace premieres the video for "Bad Wind Blowing", a duet with Norah Jones, with Elmore Magazine. View it here. This is the first single off his new album, Everything I Say Is A Lie On, set for release on Friday, April 28th. The album was produced by Eric Ambel (Steve Earle, Joan Jett) and Norah Jones came aboard to sing on a few tracks.
Elmore Magazine describes "Bad Wind Blowing", "Like the play between fall and spring, the song straddles the line between melancholy and mischievous. Though he laments the bad wind blowing in his direction, the crunchy guitar shuffles along and harmonica soars. As he cavorts around the town, you can hear the wink in his deep, gravely vocals as he ultimately reminds himself-and the listener- 'you can't change the weather so you'd better change your point of view.'"
Jack will celebrate the release of the album with a performance at HiFi Bar (169 Ave A) on Thursday, April 27 (Doors at 7:30pm, show 8pm, $10). The show will include special guest Eric Ambel. To be added to the guest list, please contact
Patrice at
September Gurl Music.
About Everything I Say Is A Lie:
The years 2015 and '16 were hard ones for Jack. His marriage to his bass player, Daria, was coming to an end. They'd been preparing to release, Everything I Say Is A Lie and the pre-orders were steady. Yep Roc Records was considering a deal and Jack's management and booking agencies were cranking at full steam. But Jack felt something he had never felt before; this break up had taken the wind out of his sails.
He was drained. He tried but found he could no longer juggle the band, the road, songwriting, and moving, with the weight of a 13-year marriage and musical partnership coming to a close. He planted himself primarily in Brooklyn and played an average of four times per week which, along with royalties from his music in the movies "Super Troopers" (Fox Searchlight) and "Beerfest" (Warner Brothers), kept him afloat. He wrote about 30 new songs and for now, they live in his notebooks. "I'm sure the numbers will resurface, but I am currently not in a hurry to return to that place," he says.
In the summer of 2016, two years after recording Everything I Say Is A Lie, Jack by chance ran into Norah and her band at the airport. They sat down and had a beer, and at one point, "Everything I Say Is A Lie" came up. When the band asked how the album was doing, Jack just shrugged and said,"I haven't put it out yet." Norah leaned in and incredulously asked, "Jack, what the hell!?"
The encounter got Jack thinking, and things came to a head later that summer when he visited a childhood friend. He looked at Jack late one night and sighed, "You gotta find a new girl or something, because this whole experience has stolen your essence".
In January of 2017, Jack took a trip to Sayulita, Mexico and proclaimed, "It's time, to reclaim myself and ditch this maudlin songwriter thing." The trip was truly a magical motorcycling beach fantasy. Jack returned refreshed and reviewed the music from, Everything I Say Is A Lie.
"The songs just jumped back into my repertoire. They were waiting for me and I for them," he says. "I think I knew what was coming when I wrote these songs, but consciously, I was in complete denial. The songs and I have re-bonded and I'd like to properly release them. "Bad Wind Blowing," a duet with Norah, was a complete foreshadowing of the days to come and seems to ring true for 2017 America. "Everything I Say Is A Lie," the title track, is a sarcastic spin on denial told through the eyes of a complete narcissist. "I Like You" is not about love, but the underrated emotion of just liking someone and enjoying their company, while the closing song, "So We Run" is about confronting and saying no to things you simply do not want to do. "It turns out, I have little control over what I write. The words are like a feisty dog on a leash, pulling me wherever they want to go. I hope one day, to be as honest as my own songs."
The album was recorded in Brooklyn, NY at Cowboy Technical Services.
Jack Grace wrote the songs primarily on his 1947 Gibson LG-2 signed by Merle Haggard, Doc Watson and Charlie Louvin (all of whom Jack has played with).
Eric Ambel and
Jack Grace share guitar duties. It is definitely a recording that emphasizes guitar tone. Daria Grace plays a 1956 Kay electric bass and sings. Diego Voglino and Russ Meissner play drums, Bill Malchow sent in the piano and keyboard parts from New Orleans.
Norah Jones and Lee Falco sing additional vocals.
