Ed Romanoff's newest album The Orphan King is slated for release February 23. The first single "Less Broken Now" premieres at M Music & Musicians Magazine, see the post HERE and share the track HERE. The title of the follow-up to his 2012 self-titled debut stems in part from Romanoff's recent discovery from a DNA test that his father's identity was mistaken.
A lifetime of occupational rambling across the country-including stacking toilet bowls in North Carolina and branding cattle in Wyoming-and a relatively late start to musicianship has given Romanoff a unique perspective as a songwriter. An embrace of outsiders is integral to his material with songs about abandoned Irish boxers, outlaws and even the Elephant Man. The thirteen tracks on the new LP collectively depict a kind of gothic car chase across some mythic American plain.
Based in Woodstock, NY, Romanoff worked alongside producer Simone Felice (Lumineers) to record The Orphan King at Felice's barn studio just miles down the road in Palenville, NY. The pair corralled an impressive roster of collaborators to appear on the album including Romanoff's longtime friend and touring mate Rachael Yamagata, Kenneth Pattengale of the Milk Carton Kids, guitarist Cindy Cashdollar (Dylan's Time Out of Mind), The E Street Band's Cindy Mizelle and multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, along with Campbell's wife and duo partner, Teresa Williams.
Romanoff is a singular chronicler of American experience having had an unconventional journey before beginning his music career in earnest. He founded his own New York-based production group but then committed himself to songwriting in his forties with mentorship in Nashville from the likes of Darrell Scott, Beth Nielson Chapman and Mary Gauthier, who invited him to support her on tour. His 2012 self-titled debut, produced by Crit Harmon(Lori McKenna, Martin Sexton), won the Nashville Songwriters Song of the Year and later that year he joined Steve Earle and James McMurtry as a winner of the Kerrville New Folk Competition.
THE ORPHAN KING TRACK LIST
1. Miss Worby's Ghost
2. Elephant Man
3. A Golden Crown
4. The Orphan King
5. Without You
6. Leavin' With Someone Else
7. Less Broken Now
8. The Ballad of Willie Sutton
9. I'll Remember You
10. The Night is a Woman
11. Blue Boulevard (Na Na Na)
12. Lost and Gone
13. Coronation Blues
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