pierce woodward - blow them away
album profile
With influences stretching from Manu Chao to Michael Moore and Bruce Molsky to Noam Chomsky, Pierce Woodward is creating some of the most daring and beautiful dissident music in post-9/11 America.
His second solo release, blow them away, is a collection of songs that explore the choices Americans make every day as free thinking citizens of a nation at war. It includes a song about coming to terms with the abuse of detainees ("Dramamine Drowsy"), a ballad examining the murder of independent journalists in Baghdad ("Palestine Hotel"), and a track detailing the ease with which mainstream American life moves along in the face of daily tragedy around the globe ("Diplomat Voice"):
There
were birds falling from the sky, fishes drowning in the mud
People between appointments filling their tanks with blood
Farmers had to eat their seeds, making bread from salt and dirt
People who worshiped God while wearing a sweatshop shirt
The album ranges musically from playful pop songs ("So," "Spiritual Healer") to tracks rooted in the traditions Woodward discovered while he was the bassist in New York's "trad is rad" string band, The Mammals ("Palestine Hotel," "Holy War"). He toured far and wide with the group for two years, and lived with political music guru Pete Seeger between tours, before splitting off in 2004 to focus on his own repertoire. After touring solo in the fall and winter, he headed into the studio with co-producers Ken Maiuri (Pedro the Lion, The Mammals) and Max Feldman (U2, Radiohead) to track the ten songs on blow them away. Maiuri also penned one of the songs on the album ("Tell Me the News"), a tale of disillusionment with the mainstream news media.
Songs from
Pierce’s solo debut, Leave No Millionaire Behind, have
been heard on dozens of independent radio stations across the U.S., Canada,
and Europe, and the title track was the opening cut on the 2004 M.O.B.
(Musicians to Oust Bush) compilation CD. He spent much of his childhood
living with his family in Germany, has toured India with Mammals
comrade Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, and his new CD includes traditional songs
from both those countries ("Die Gedanken Sind Frei", "Mahut
Bandhure"). He is also a member of the subversive string band, the
Jolly Bankers,
and has worked as an artist-in-residence in elementary and middle
schools as part of Mad
River Theater Works, a theater company based in Ohio.
track list
1.
so
2. tell me the news (k. maiuri)
3. quaker love
4. spiritual healer
5. mahut bandhure (trad. bengali)
6. dramamine drowsy
7. palestine hotel
8. holy war (t. rodriguez-seeger/p. woodward)
9. diplomat voice mp3
10. die gedanken sind frei (trad. german)
credits
pierce woodward - acoustic guitar, banjo, fiddle [8], bass [8]
ken maiuri - drums, bass, wurlitzer, electric guitar, glockenspiel, handclaps,
vocals [2, 7],
percussion
kristin andreassen - vocals [4, 6, 7]
laura cortese - fiddle [4, 5, 7]
max feldman - handclaps
adam greenberg - vocals [1, 6, 7]
ruth ungar - vocals [5,9]
recorded
january 3-8, 2005 at look sik, nyc
additional tracking at magic bean music, hoboken, nj
engineered and mixed by max feldman
produced by ken, max and pierce
songs ©
2005 pierce woodward except
"tell me the news" [ken maiuri, leute von heute music/ascap]
"holy war" [melody based on "the eel" by tao rodriguez-seeger,
swinging door music/bmi]
"mahut bandhure" [traditional bengali. love song to a roving
elephant herder]
"die gedanken sind frei" [traditional german. translation by
arthur krevess & gerda lerner]
cover photo by pierce, from a market in kissidougou, guinea.
Hell is better than heaven, if the man in hell honors his place, and
the man in heaven, does not. It is in vain you pretend that you are not
responsible for the evil law because you are not a magistrate, or a party
to a civil process, or do not vote. You eat the law in a crust of bread,
you wear it in your hat and shoes. [Ralph Waldo Emerson]