Eric Margan likes to tell stories with his music. He is the leader, resident multi-instrumentalist, and composer of Eric Margan & The Red Lions, a New York band that is all about careful arrangements and lush melodies enhanced by strings and brass.
The recording of the Midnight Book album took two years, which might have hampered the continuity of the sound, but the songs flow into each other with ease, forming a lazy flowing river with dangerous undertows. Captain Magan pilots his ship and tells the passengers what has happened. It is sad story about a marriage that ends in tragedy, but with his gift for soothing music you keep listening.
Taking cues from the classics (using the drowning of Ophelia in Old man River) and 60s pop (The Blues Will Have To Do) this album is on a par with The Decemberists' The Hazards of Love. Magan is only 22 and he is already writing major league music.
Eric Margan & The Red Lions:
Eric Margan: musical arrangements, flute, guitar, piano, vibraphone, celeste, harmonium, Hammond organ, Mellotron, upright bass
Live Band:
Jim Bertini: drums
Vince Chiarito: bass
Zachary Seman: piano
Johanna Warren: flute, guitar, vocals
Midnight Book is a self-released album. Buy it from CD Baby.
Tracks:- An Ocean Blue
- Bay of Naples
- You Are A Ghost
- I'll Never Know
- A Speckled Mind
- Disintegrate
- Old Man River
- Down the Water
- The Blues Will Have To Do
- Interlude
- Midnight Book
- Without The Sun
- 04/15 The Bowery Poetry Club (Eric plays solo) New York, NY
- 04/24 Rockwood Music Hall, New York, NY
- 04/25 Revolution Hall, Troy, NY
No comments:
Post a Comment