STG Presents Paul Weller And Alberta Cross On 4/15

Seattle Theatre Group (STG) presents Paul Weller with special guest, Alberta Cross, on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 7:30pm at the Moore Theatre.

One year in the making. Seventy Minutes in length. Twenty-one songs. 22 Dreams.

After a three year recording hiatus - during which he played two historic concert series in NYC and LA devoting one evening each to his Jam, Style Council, and solo catalogs, and earned Lifetime Achievement honors at the 2007 Brit Awards, among other highlights - Paul Weller returns in July with 22 Dreams (Yep Roc), his ninth solo album and the most ambitious of his career.

22 Dreams is not a return to form. It is not "Weller's best record since [fill in your favorite album here.]" It is a complete flowering of every musical impulse this artistic polymath has previously hinted at, and then some: rock, funk, soul, freak folk, free jazz, krautrock, classical, spoken word, electronica, and beyond.

"I've never understood the need to put music into boxes" says Weller. "I could listen to Debussy one minute, then some avant-garde jazz album, then Curtis Mayfield the next. To me, it all comes from the same source."

22 Dreams was co-produced by Weller and Simon Dine (Adventures in Stereo, Noonday Underground) and recorded at Weller's own Black Barn Studios in Surrey. Weller co-wrote the album's first single, "Echoes Round the Sun," with Oasis' Noel Gallagher. A shimmering blast of pure energy, the song is destined to join The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" and The Chemical Brothers' "Setting Sun" as an instant anthem of British rock. Other guests on the album include Blur guitarist Graham Coxon on the hazy soft shoe of "Black River," and modern day mod Little Barrie, who contributes frantic guitar work to the album's title track.

22 Dreams concludes with a four-song suite, which flows seamlessly from stark spoken word of "God" - co-written with ex-Stone Rose Aziz Ibrahim - to the mellotron and moog experiment "111" ("I've never done anything as full tilt as this," says Weller), to the wistful acoustic stomp of "Sea Spray," before concluding with the six minute instrumental "Night Lights," another experimental track which deploys everything from tabla and tape loops to the sounds of an electrical storm which rained down, serendipitously, during the final sessions for the album.

Tickets: $43.00, not including applicable fees. Tickets are on sale Saturday, February 14 at 10am at Tickets.com, Paramount or Moore Theatre box office, 24-hour kiosks located outside The Paramount & Moore Theatres, charge by phone at 1-877-STG-4TIX, or online at STGPresents.org.

Seattle Theatre Group is the 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization that operates the historic Paramount and Moore Theatres in Seattle, Washington. Our mission is to make diverse performing arts and education an integral part of our region's cultural identity while keeping these two landmark venues alive and vibrant. STG presents a range of performances from Broadway, off-Broadway, dance and jazz to comedy, concerts of all genres, speakers and family shows - at both historic theatres in Seattle and venues throughout the Puget Sound and Portland, Oregon.

 

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