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The Brave and the Blue

by Belle Adair

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1.
Be Brave 02:45
2.
Sister 03:55
Sister sings a song Sparrows sing along Soon they will be gone, sister Soon they will be gone We’ll find them underground Buried ‘neath the town I can’t make a sound, sister I can’t make a sound Grab the gasoline Spread it through the streets Soon the air will sink, sister Soon the air will sink We’ll watch the buildings burn As the morning turns I can’t speak a word, sister I can’t speak a word
3.
White black sky Images die On a widescreen Where blackbirds fly Cracked tooth smile 1909 Red of the sun On a rust belt ride Count yourself to sleep The slowest routine Time’s caught in the breeze The slowest routine Across wide plains Split screen frame In a black dream A soft refrain Bury my name Bury my name All you can say is bury my name
4.
The unwelcome guest came in the night Never took off his coat Put a record on slow Said, “I shall reveal the debt you have made From which you’ve been kept But will not be saved.” A ghost from the west He waited til dawn Stole from me light And then he was gone There was a fire carried by blame Now I could retire Or beg off in shame But I will not beg, no, I will not crave I’ll lose all desire Let it pass away Until I’m just bones A skeleton drawn On a black stone To be left alone
5.
I was wrong you were wide awake Where clouds never break and memories postpone Overtones for heaven’s sake Pick up the phone And you’ll hear a high pitched drone Steady and strong message unclear Oh my dear, it’s been so long Since we’ve been near So I roam and find the mistakes A riddle that makes you feel unknown Where the gloam won’t overtake The love we have known
6.
Golden Days 03:02
Where have the golden days all gone? When I step outside, my mind barely registers at all Can’t recall the smallest light Six white horses on a plain not a one of them I ride Oh no, is it normal to be free? Oh no, it’s a lock without a key Oh no, in the last place that you leave Giving up’s so easy when you don’t believe Where have the golden days all gone? A crystal ball I see your face, monastery’s broken glass Leaving everything to chance No more strategies or plans Idle hands the past is passed
7.
Easy Way Out 04:25
Take time to count all the reasons you let me in Rewind back to the season our love began And when you’re out on the beach and I’m far out of reach Will you think of me anyhow? I’m all alone right here waiting for you to come out Two wheels the highway is longing for overdrive Cold steel in my hands makes me feel alive And if I make all our plans, will you meet all my demands? Will you hold me before we begin? I’ve got a big idea to blow this whole world to an end Everybody knows it’s been hard, love It just takes two pulls to turn it all around Everybody knows we’ve had hard luck Let’s go and try to take the easy way out Lord, you know we’re taking the easy way out We might find ourselves back in paradise We might lose ourselves in the dead of night But if we wake up to find, that we never really die That the dream was all dream all the time I’ll hold you in my arms and wait for the morning to rise
8.
I’m wandering around the avenue’s tight In a brand new town on a Saturday night And you know the truth, the truth is my train Oh, my train of thought lost it out in the rain Now I’m rolling down the line trying to find Anything to ease my mind The lines all run clean and send me back through The days in between the brave and the blue I’m taking my fear and packing it up I’m shipping it off to the end of the world Now I’m rolling down the line trying to find Anything to ease my mind But the signs all reappear, which way should I steer? Won’t you come tell me you’re near
9.
Comes A Time 04:47
Comes a time when every man must choose To open up his heart even though he might lose And is this happiness knocking on my door? Should I let it in, or should I let it go? After last time, swore I’d never take change But you fell in just right never took a second glance And is this happiness knocking on my door? Should I let it in, or should I let it go? Where did we find something so true, something so kind? How do we keep on keeping our love so strong?
10.
The Search 02:50
Shot through the middle of your mind Like a rook flying wild in the springtime You want answers well you can’t afford them You want clues all you do is distort them You whisper that your life’s the chorus To a tune that’s become so obvious And your gospel has gone without warning While your song it plays on in the morning As still as the wind on a Sunday On a hill where you’re plotting your escape You tie up your loose ends with wire Hold fear in your hand like it’s fire And the voices of stones cannot sway you The reasons of men will betray you Still you look to the North Star for guidance As the search it’s begun here in earnest And I will not find you in burning fields of September And I will not remind you of the promises you don’t remember All that we seek is what we are given

about

Belle Adair’s first record, The Brave and the Blue, will shipwreck your intellect. One minute the kettle’s ringing, or the light is changing red to green, but you’re gone. You’re swept away to this heart-wandering tiny universe with pedal steel swells and trumpet gulls, love lamented and comprehended. Life, examined and exalted.

The record is the wreck. The island. The raft. You’re the drifter. Listen.

“Be Brave” opens the record with two-and-a-half minutes of ethereal ambience, a balm of an introduction to the motifs and instrumentation to come. The track is a reflection of Belle Adair songwriter and front man Matt Green’s admiration of ambient artists like Tim Hecker and Stars of the Lid. The instrumental elements of “Be Brave” undercurrent the first half of the record as the sound evolves, straddling folk, pop, and indie-rock. The band draws from a wide palette of sounds: pedal steel, Rhodes, violin, brass, synthesizers, and guitar, with the acoustic often playing lead. And Green’s soulful vocals, hinting at British whispers and Southern lilts, steady yet brimming with the emotion of each song’s crux.

Green, like you, wanders-between The Brave and the Blue-searching for significance in what we can withstand to lose and dare to hope. Much of The Brave and the Blue was imagined in the early mornings of a time of revival for Green, who returned home to Muscle Shoals, Ala., after his Birmingham apartment was destroyed in a fire, the last loss in a series of disappearances: work, love, happiness, reason.

The synced timbres and tones, key and elements, images and ideas of one grand musical atmosphere create the world of Side A. You’ll wander through the cinematic poetry of burning streets beneath a wide black sky past unwelcome guests and lost loves, but don’t distress. The music will carry you through. “Sister” is a dream, embodying the tonal modes of Belle Adair, shifting from sweet acoustics to a crescendo of jangly keys and electric guitar, before fizzing into beautiful distortion. “The Unwelcome Guest” is a lonely slow dance in a Southern bar. Dawn on an autumn beach and the “Clouds Never Break.” You’re alone, for now, drifter.

Side B begins with the rosy pop of “Golden Days,” your future unfurling. The organ and horn-drenched “Easy Way Out” is the highway, so rich in sound and ringing with such verisimilitude, your heart will ache and sing, drifter. The candid “Comes a Time” brings you face to face with the possibility of new love. And finally, “The Search” is a grassy hilltop at the destination of one journey, the launch of another. Green sings, “All we seek is what we are given.” Welcome home.

Green’s predilection for sundry styles of songwriting is ever present in the roaming of Side B-a nod to the recording fashions of bands like The Byrds - but also a manifestation of place. Green’s access to talented musicians is unlimited in the Shoals; although the songs begin with Green, they end in the deftly handled instruments of nearly a dozen musicians who gathered at Nutthouse Recording Studio in the Shoals. Of particular note is the backing band’s attention to each song’s needs, always appropriate, never intruding-Daniel Stoddard’s pedal steel, Chris James’ bass, and Patrick McDonald’s drums. For Green, the studio is a fortress, a sanctuary, in which his intentions become tangible; the outside world barricaded from the one he’s creating. Keyboardist and Green’s childhood friend Ben Tanner engineered the record, drawing on the mystical intuition and trust of friendship, completing Green’s arrival home.

Belle Adair casts away the trepidation of traveling roads once rocky. How fitting for a band named after a sunken ship in Steinbeck’s Winter of Our Discontent. Put on The Brave and the Blue. And the kettle, too. Drift away. Forage the once-forgotten memories of your past self, no longer deserted.

credits

released August 27, 2013

Engineered and Mixed by Ben Tanner
Recorded at The Nutthouse (Sheffield, AL)
Mastered by JJ Golden at Golden Mastering (Ventura, CA)
Artwork by Amy Pleasant
All songs written by Matthew Green - Blue Bicycle Publishing (ASCAP)
Performed by Belle Adair

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