Singer/songwriter/producer Rachael Sage weaves an introspective tapestry of a gypsy seeking a home on ‘Delancey Street'. The MPress Records release, set for May 18th brick-and-mortar (and available digitally on April 20th via iTunes,) is a musical exploration of identity...of cultural heritage, family history, and how where we come from shapes the paths we ultimately take in life. Listen to a streaming audio sampler, here: http://www.sethcohenpr.com/player/rachaelsage/
Drawing inspiration from her immigrant Jewish heritage as a creative starting point, Sage's atmospheric collection evokes a weathered scrapbook, as if each track captured a moment in time and articulated the experiences through song. The CD reflects Sage's deeper sense of perspective, earned after a decade on the road, living without a true ‘home'. This past year, she made a conscious decision to reestablish her roots, solidify her relationships, and bring balance to her untethered life. The result is ‘Delancey Street'.
Sage puts it bluntly: "'Delancey Street' is an album about change, written by someone who happens to be petrified of making the wrong choices."
Featuring an art-rock sound reminiscent of the idiosyncratic work of Kate Bush, the CD, Sage's ninth, features 11 songs (ten original compositions plus an inspired cover of the Hall & Oates classic, ‘Rich Girl'.) A twelfth song, Sage's understated rendition of ‘Fame', will be offered as a Bonus Track for iTunes buyers. Of ‘Rich Girl', Sage comments, "Hall & Oates have been a huge influence on me since I was a kid...I saw them perform this past New Year's Eve, and when I went back into the studio a few days later, I found myself banging out this song on the Wurlitzer."
The first track on the album, "Hope's Outpost", describes a kind of melancholy and distance that sometimes seems inevitable, between two lovers leading totally different kinds of lives. It also happens to be one of the most complex arrangements on the record, featuring a mournful jazz trumpet (Russ Johnson), blues harmonica (Trina Hamlin) and a manic drum loop (Doug Yowell) that propels one of Sage's signature arpeggiated piano riffs through rapid-fire lyrics.
Discussing the album's centerpiece title track, Sage explains why she picked one of NYC's main downtown thoroughfares as a metaphor for heartbreak. Once known as the main shopping district on the Jewish Lower East Side, most evidence of its former character has vanished in recent years. "I think what often happens to a historic neighborhood over time sort of mirrors the demise of a romance. The qualities that once drew you to someoNe You love - their soulfulness, their intelligence - can gradually erode...and it's not always easy to put your finger on exactly how or why."
Other highlights include the uptempo pop treat ‘Big Star', the lush ‘Everything Was Red', the cinematic ‘How I Got By' and the wistful ‘Wasn't It You'. Sage features both long-time collaborators and some new faces, including guitarist James Mastro (Ian Hunter), renowned bassist Will Lee (David Letterman), cellist Dave Eggar (Coldplay, The Who), guitarist Jack Petruzelli (Rufus Wainwright), organist Jon Loyd (Gavin DeGraw), and percussionist/vocalist Everett Bradley (Hall & Oates).
Sage adds, "One of the songs I'm most proud of is ‘Everything Was Red', because it's about my roots. A lot of my family is from the South, and the more time I've spent there on tour, the more I've come to appreciate the hospitality of Southerners. But there's a people-pleasing quality I know I've probably inherited from my Southern relatives that I've also seen be quite crippling. The song conveys the heartache that happens when people try so hard to stay out of each other's way, that they end up losing each other completely."
In December, Sage celebrated the biggest hometown show of her career - a holiday event at NYC's Joe's Pub, 'Tchatchkes & Latkes!', which earned her notable coverage in The NY Times, New York Magazine, Time Out NY, NY Daily News and elsewhere. The Holiday performance featured Sage's trademark theatricality, a trait she showcases on 'Delancey Street'. The smoky jazz-pop number "How I Got By" pays tribute to one of her childhood idols, swimming pin-up Esther Williams: "She always made her craft seem so completely effortless. She exemplifies glamour, strength and innovation to me, but she also had a lot of heart and that came across...she was really pretty fierce. I don't think there'd be a Lady Gaga without Esther Williams, and I think making those connections can be really insightful. Someone recently compared my on-stage antics to Fanny Brice, and I thought to myself, "wow - now that's a compliment!"
