MARGARET GLASPY Shares New Single 'Get Back'
Her new album is out this Friday, August 18 via ATO Records.
By: Michael Major Aug. 15, 2023
Margaret Glaspy has shared a new video for “Get Back,” taken from her album Echo The Diamond which is out this Friday, August 18 via ATO Records.
Brooklyn Vegan premiered the video describing the track as “anthemic and stirring.” On the single and video, Glaspy shares, “the process of writing ‘Get Back’ helped lift me out of a dark time in life. Now, when I play it live, it seems to re-enact some kind of deep compassion and joy that I’m so grateful for. It is the most fun I’ve ever had on stage.”
The release is preceded by previous singles “Act Natural,” & “Memories,” which have seen support from Pitchfork, Spin, Stereogum, Consequence, Under The Radar, and more. The album is produced by Glaspy with co-production from her partner, guitarist/composer Julian Lage and is the follow-up to 2020’s Devotion.
On August 18 Glaspy will celebrate the release of Echo The Diamond with a performance and album signing at New York City’s Rough Trade record Store located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The festivities kick-off at 6pm. On September 12 she will head to the UK for her first tour in support of the album. Glaspy and her band return stateside for a North American tour that starts September 28 in Washington, DC at Union Stage.
The tour concludes at the Lodge Room in Los Angeles on November 14. Along the way she will make stops in, among other markets, Toronto, ON on October 2, Chicago on October 7 and Seattle, on November 9. Margaret will play a hometown show at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom on October 20. All tour dates are listed below and tickets are on-sale here.
Echo The Diamond is the third full-length from Margaret Glaspy. It was produced by Glaspy with co-production from her partner, guitarist/composer Julian Lage and is the follow-up to 2020’s Devotion. Echo The Diamond takes its title from a turn of phrase that Glaspy tossed off in the midst of a conversation with Lage. “Bruce Lee once said to be water—if water is in a teacup, it becomes teacup-shaped; if it’s in a glass, then it takes the shape of that glass,” she recalls.
“For me, Echo The Diamond is a way of saying ‘shine bright’, ‘be brilliant.’” The album expands on the frenetic vitality of her widely acclaimed debut Emotions and Math—a 2016 release The New Yorker hailed as an album “in which pretty songs often turn prickly, enriched by carefully measured infusions of dissonance and grit.”
This time around, Glaspy worked with drummer/percussionist David King of The Bad Plus and bassist Chris Morrissey (Andrew Bird, Lucius, Ben Kweller), recording at Reservoir Studios in Manhattan and embracing an intentionally unfussy process that left plenty of room for spontaneity.
“I love music with a big element of risk to it, which was really the heartbeat of this album,” she says. “A lot of what you hear are the very first takes.” Anchored in the raw yet mesmerizing vocal presence and impressionistic guitar work she’s brought to the stage in touring with the likes of Spoon and Wilco, Echo The Diamond holds entirely true to the spirit of its lyrical explorations, presenting a selection of songs both unvarnished and revelatory.
Originally from the Northern California town of Red Bluff, Glaspy first started writing songs at age 15 and soon began honing the potent balance of sensitivity and incisiveness that now imbues her music. In bringing Echo The Diamond to life, she adhered to a songwriting process meant to preserve and amplify her unfettered expression (“If I sit down with a guitar for about 15 minutes, I usually have a song at the end,” she notes).
Along with drawing from an eclectic mix of inspirations—Sonic Youth, Vivienne Westwood’s punk-influenced approach to fashion, Tom Waits’s music and turn as a jailbird DJ in Jim Jarmusch’s Down By Law, the 1985 Japanese Western film Tampopo—Glaspy sustained that sense of thoughtful urgency upon joining forces with King and Morrissey in the studio.
“This is the most fluid and immediate music I have ever made,” she says. “I see now that I protected the creative space by surrounding myself with incredible people in making this record, and I’m so happy I did.”
As a result of Glaspy’s rigor in protecting her instincts, Echo The Diamond ultimately marks the glorious realization of her most closely held intentions for the album. “I’m excited to make music that doesn’t try to manipulate the listener into wishing for things to be any different from what they are. Ideally, I want my songs to reveal life for what it is, and to show that it’s that way for everyone.”
Tour Dates
8/18 - New York, NY @ Rough Trade Records (performance and album signing)
9/12 - Brighton, UK @ Chalk *
9/13 - London, UK @ O2 Forum Kentish Town *
9/14 - Bristol, UK @ SWX *
9/16 - Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall *
9/17 - Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 *
9/18 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club *
9/20 - London, UK @ Omeara
9/28 - Washington, DC @ Union Stage
9/29 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
9/30 - Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
10/2 - Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe
10/3 - Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
10/4 - Detroit, MI @ El Club
10/6 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
10/7 - Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village
10/8 - Milwaukee, WI @ The Back Room @ Colectivo
10/10 - Nashville, TN @ Third Man Records Blue Room
10/11 - Atlanta, GA @ Center Stage (Vinyl)
10/12 - Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
10/13 - Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle
10/14 - Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
10/20 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
11/1 - Austin, TX @ Antone’s
11/2 - Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Co
11/4 - Denver, CO @ Ophelia's
11/6 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
11/7 - Boise, ID @ The Olympic
11/9 - Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou's
11/10 - Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
11/11 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
11/13 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
11/14 - Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
*opening for Half Moon Run
Photo by Ebru Yildiz
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