WIDDERSHINS

Description

Written and composed in the urgency of the moment, Widdershins is the new album by Nashville-based Californian songwriter Grant-Lee Phillips. Inspired by "those things that gnaw at us in the late hours," Phillips incisively, subtly, and intelligently portrays a charged social landscape. Recorded at Nashville's Sound Emporium, the album's 12 tracks were produced by Phillips (guitar/vocals/keyboards) and refined as a trio in the studio with Jerry Roe (drums) and Lex Price (bass). Its first single "Totally You Gunslinger" skillfully salutes Roy Orbison and The Smiths. Mixed by Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket), the album delivers its poetic truths through Phillips' unparalleled melodic sensibility, which resonates in his vocal performance, balanced between intensity and vulnerability. Having vowed not to succumb to despair, Phillips sketches a longer story that reconnects to his early work with Grant-Lee Buffalo, a period of intense social anxiety following the Gulf War and the Los Angeles riots. It is in this same heightened state that Widdershins was composed.