Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket) has released a new EP titled Brokenhearted Jubilee (Stocks in Asia/Thirty Tigers), a 7 track EP, inspired by the days of old cassette mix tapes. It includes 6 covers and a new, original song by Broemel, weaving together songs well-known and new alike, a collection of melancholic yet beautiful music. Carl has also released a series of visualizers for each track, which can be found here.
Stream Brokenhearted Jubilee via YouTube!
"This is a collection of some of Eric and I's favorite songs of all time, songs we come back to often," explains Carl Broemel. "Once we started recording them, there emerged a kind of connecting theme of beauty amongst loss, how the springtime springtime only works as a result of experiencing the dark energy of winter, and in doing so, brings life back again fresh and new."
Broemel, together with longtime collaborator and drummer Eric Hopper, convened in the spring of 2018 to do some casual recording at Carl's home studio. Broemel and Hopper's shared obsession for all versions of the song "Junk" by Paul McCartney, was the starting point for their endeavor. It quickly turned a lighthearted get together into something with serious intent. Brokenhearted Jubilee - a wistful, paradoxical, line from the song - naturally became the shorthand name for the project and "Junk" became the EP's opening track. This song, as well as 2 others, feature the unmistakable talents of harmonica master, Mickey Raphael who is best known for playing with Willie Nelson for the last 4 decades.
The EP also includes a lavish interpretation of Nick Drake's "Pink Moon", complete with lush string arrangements, haunting harmonica and Bo Koster (My Morning Jacket) on keys. "Longing for You" is an attempt to revive a somewhat corny song by an enigmatic and shifty movie entrepreneur named Palmer Rockey. Rockey's unfinished film has disappeared, but the remaining soundtrack is a rare cult classic of oddball music.
"The Way It Will Be" sees Broemel's take on a Gillian Welch and David Rawlings tune, taking the powerful original and giving it an expansive rock treatment at over 9 minutes long. The EP is rounded out with covers of Ron Sexsmith's "God Loves Everyone" and "In April" by Sardina. Amidst the covers, the EP also contains a new Broemel original track, "Face of the Earth", inspired by a Tarot card reading that happens in the new psychedelic autobiographical novel "The Light Years", written by Chris Rush.
This EP comes on the heels of Broemel's most recent LP Wished Out, released last year. Consequence of Sound called it, "some of the most energetic, honest work of Broemel's quietly excellent career". The record featured many collaborators including Robbie Crowell (Deer Tick), Russ Pollard (Everest, Sebadoh), and My Morning Jacket bandmates Tom Blankenship and Bo Koster.
Tour Dates:
4/16: Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theatre *
4/17: Wilmington, NC @ Greenfield Lake Amphitheatre *
4/19: Macon, GA @ Hargray Capitol Theatre *
4/20: Chattanooga, TN @ Walker Theatre - Memorial Auditorium *
4/21: Lexington, KY @ Manchester Music Hall *
4/23: Tuscaloosa, AL @ Druid City Music Hall *
4/24: Oxford, MS @ The Lyric Oxford *
5/3: New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum ~
* = with Head and the Heart
~ = with Karl Denson's Tiny Universe
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