Map Of A Blue City

Description

When she was a child, Marc Ribot's daughter drew a map of a deep, rich, vibrant blue city. When he praised her blue map, she corrected him: it’s not a blue map, but a map of a blue city. This distinction struck him and ultimately inspired a curious song titled "Map of a Blue City." Map of a Blue City reflects on what it means to be lost – the confusion and fear, of course, but also the excitement of so many unforeseen possibilities. Its story is a strange map of its own, full of false starts, dead ends, and an inconceivable tragedy, all leading to what could be his definitive statement as an instrumentalist, as a songwriter, and even as a singer. Although it is not a singer-songwriter album, it is his first to prominently center his plaintive and wise voice. The map of a blue city carries the weight of its history with grace, incorporating recordings made over nearly half of Ribot's life and reflecting on how he arrived at this particular moment. "Having worked on this album for so long, I've seen the world change radically and not really change at all. Some of today's issues are the same ones I was thinking about when I started the album, but some are things I couldn't have dreamed of back then. But I think that's why I was so determined to get the right production values. The production of a recording is really complicated, but it all comes down to the kind of room the listener feels they are standing in. There are hard truths and cold observations in these songs. I wanted the room to be small enough that we couldn't look away, but warm enough to feel like hearing it from the mouth of a friend."