Jeffrey Foucault “Horse Latitudes” due May 3 / Signature Sounds
Michaela O'Brien
Posted On April 5, 2011
You can hear the title track of Jeffrey Foucault’s stunning new HORSE LATITUDES CD
— due May 3, on Signature Sounds — here.
The Horse Latitudes are the equatorial reaches where only ocean, sky and desert obtain; where legend says becalmed Spanish sailors put their horses overboard as the cisterns ran dry. Places of element, and reckoning.
Longtime disciple of the rich and strange music that sings behind the American veil, Jeffrey Foucault has spent the last decade mining the darker seams of country and blues, producing a string of spare and elemental albums of rare power while garnering accolades across the United States and overseas for a tersely elegant brand of songwriting set apart by its haunting imagery and weather-beaten cool. He lives in Western Massachusetts.
Recorded in just three days in Los Angeles, HORSE LATITUDES, features Eric Heywood (Pretenders, Ray Lamontagne) on pedal steel, baritone and electric guitars; Billy Conway (Morphine, Cold Satellite) on drums; Jennifer Condos (Ray Lamontagne, Sam Phillips) on electric bass, and Van Dyke Parks (Lowell George, Bran Wilson, Ry Cooder) on keys and accordion, with backing vocals and cello from Kris Delmhorst…. an all-star ensemble that seamlessly merges the ferocity of rock and the honesty of country with the plaintive wonder in Foucault’s weathered voice.
Jeffrey’s earlier CD reviews:
THE NEW YORKER: Jeffrey Foucault, sings stark, literate songs that are as wide open as the landscape of his native Midwest.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Jeffrey Foucault is a young man with an old soul… contemporary and timeless.
NO DEPRESSION: There is no America like the one that serves as a backdrop for the songs on Jeffrey Foucault’s aching new album (Ghost Repeater)… his spare, rootsy tunes are deceptively complex… the title track is the real stunner here… guitarist and producer Bo Ramsey augments Foucault’s acoustic songs with sinewy fills on electric guitar, adding a high-lonesome feel and ominous undertones.
