I'm proud to call music writer Jim Walsh a good friend. The degree and varying types of support he has lent to the Twin Cities music community over the past 25-30 years of his life (more actually) is beyond compare. He has fostered musicians and other writers in that time, including me, in both capacities. Over the past few years of covering his Mad Ripple Hootenanny's at various locations throughout the Twin Cities as both a photographer and journalist, I have frequently found myself on stage with him and the crew, playing my own original creations alongside some of the best musicians in this town. For that, I am eternally grateful.
I am also honored to be able to invite the public to Kings Wine Bar, my favorite South Minneapolis restaurant for a listening party tonight for Walsh's new Eclectone Records release, Her Tattoos Could Sail Ships. The album's title comes from one of the album's tracks, "For Banjo Lisa Wherever You Are," a song which even occasional Hootenanny attendees over the past couple of years are bound to have heard at least once.
These songs are sexy and honest; modern folk tunes, if you will; songs which get stuck in your head and just won't leave. I hope you can come down tonight and join us as we play Jim's new record, and expect to find yourself singing along before the night is through.
What: Listening Party for The Mad Ripple's Her Tattoos Could Sail Ships
Where: Kings Wine Bar, 4555 Grand Avenue South, Minneapolis (46th and Grand)
When: 9PM to 11
RSVP on Facebook here.
More detail below:
Fast facts about The Mad Ripple’s sophomore sweetheart Her Tattoos Could Sail Ships:
- “There are real songs here, about love, life, bars, mortality, lust, sorrow, growing up,” said writer/singer/songwriter Jim Walsh (aka The Mad Ripple), about the nine tunes that comprise Ships, many of which were first heard at The Mad Ripple Friday Night Hootenanny, a rotating collection of songwriters that happens regularly at various Minneapolis locales. “The songs are personal, but the CD itself is something of a document of the community and magic that has sprung up around the Hoot.”
- The Eclectone Records release was produced by Walsh and Stook! and recorded at Caleb Garn’s Five Watt Studios in Eagan, Minnesota. The tracks feature back-up vocals by Ashleigh Still, Brianna Lane and Shawn Gibbons; bass guitar and mandolin by Marc Perlman (Jayhawks, Golden Smog, Janey & Marc, Polara); drums by Richard Medek (Molly Maher & Her Disbelievers) and Jordan Carlson (Stook! & The Jukes); guitars by Stook! and Jim and Jay Walsh; electric dulcimer by Drew Miller (Boiled In Lead); harmonica and keyboards by Terry Walsh (Belfast Cowboys, St. Dominic’s Trio); keyboards by Pete Christensen, and violin and banjo by Eliza Blue. Mr. Medek did all his drum tracks in one night, a few days after his recording session for actor Kevin Costner’s CD. Ms. Still did her vocals with her two kids crawling all over her (no babysitter).
- The CD title is taken from “For Banjo Lisa Wherever You Are,” a tribute to “Banjo” Lisa Zwier, owner of Banjo Jim’s on 9th and Avenue C in Greenwich Village, NYC, which hosted a seven-night Hoot stand last summer.
- The video for the song “Death Bed Bride,” filmed at Kings Wine Bar in Minneapolis in November, can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1MuYfjWJRg
- Upon hearing “Ballad Of The Tin Star Sisters,” a paean to the act of loving and losing your favorite local band, Minneapolis songwriter/writer Jay Hurley (Landing Gear) commented, “That’s the best lost Go-Betweens song I’ve ever heard.”
- Her Tattoos Could Sail Ships is the follow-up to The Mad Ripple’s well-received debut CD Sink and/or Swim, which americana-uk.com called, “a ramshackle gem.” The Mad Ripple is currently at work on a follow-up long-player, with a little help from his friends Tom Herbers and Romantica’s Ben Kyle. Coal Miner’s Grandson (working title) will be available in the spring.
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