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ALEC LYTLE & THEM ROUNDERS TO RELEASE
DEBUT ALBUM THE END OF OURS OCTOBER 16
LISTEN TO THE SINGLE PREMIERE OF “NORTH, CA”
Los Angeles, CA – September 21, 2015 – Northern California’s Americana folk treasure Alec Lytle & Them Rounders will release their long-awaited debut studio album The End of Ours (Four Acre Records) on October 16. Produced by Tony Berg (Michael Penn, Josh Radin, Blake Mills) and engineered/mixed by the legendary Bob Clearmountain (Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie), the 11-track album will be available on iTunes, CD and special edition 180-gram vinyl. The band is currently premiering a lyric video for the evocative first single “North, CA” online at YouTube. Fans can also check out a solo acoustic performance of the song recorded in Brazil for Lá no Clicka. Alec Lytle will be touring solo and in select U.S. cities as Alec Lytle & Them Rounders from the end of 2015 and through 2016. Dates will also include a tour of Brazil. For up-to-date information, please visit the band online at: www.aleclytle.com.
Having spent much of his life in a supporting role for various musicians as an upright bass player and harmony singer, Lytle began his solo music career at the urging of fellow musicians convincing him that his personal songs deserved to be heard by an audience.
“I wrote most of the songs on this record during the four years I lived in a yurt that I built in the Santa Cruz Mountains” says Lytle. “The little place had only a pot-belly stove for heat, and I spent most of my nights there alone with the Pacific coastal fog collecting in the redwood trees overhead, making a racket dripping onto the canvas roof… it was a great place to think and to write.”
Since then, he has been serving as a folk troubadour playing his nuanced acoustic music in clubs and bars from Los Angeles to San Francisco, in cafés in Thailand, public squares in Brazil and on any field or mountaintop where he can tell his stories to a few empathetic listeners or simply the wide open spaces.
“I’ve been good friends with Tony and Clearmountain for years, and working with them to make this record felt like creating something with my two older brothers,” says Lytle. “It wasimportant to me to be genuinewhile exploring these very personal songs, and it really helped to work with two friends that I’m so comfortable with. It was pretty inspiring to have their talent and creativity help make these songs all that I hoped they could be.”
Alongside his voice and acoustic guitar, Lytle recruited a veritable who’s who of musicians to aid in knitting together his both musically diverse and distinct vision for The End of Ours, The players that make up”Them Rounders” including Val McCallum (Josh Radin, Lucinda Williams, Jackson Brown) on acoustic guitar; Greg Leisz (Beck, Wilco, Ray LaMontagne) on Pedal Steel, Lap Steel and Dobro; Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple, John Mayer, Nickel Creek) on drums; Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing, Fiona Apple) on bass; Patrick Warren (Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, Ray LaMontagne) on piano and organ; Gabe Witcher (The Punch Brothers) on fiddle;Dan Newitt on mandolin and vocal harmony; and Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Z Berg (The Like, JJAMZ), Korey Dane and Jacob Snider also assisting with vocal harmonies.
“I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the greatest musicians over the past few years, and even more fortunate that some of them were able to play on my record,” says Lytle on the collaborative recording effort. “The core group played together with me singing and playing live, so most of what you hear on the record is just us all playing as a band in Clearmountain’s big studio space. Live vocals, live everything… and since we were all playing acoustic,you can definitely feel some sort of organic resonant interplay between all of the instruments.”
Often with just his intimate voice, heartbreaking words, and the sound of his Martin guitar,Lytle’s languid lyricism is also steeped in complicated emotion. During the recording of the album, Lytle’s mother passed and only months later, his first child was born. From the end of relationships to the deaths of loved ones, Lytle angularly references some very sad events in his own life.
In the opening track and debut single, “North, CA,” he gives the listener a snapshot of the golden rolling hills and long stretches of road that make up the last glimpse of life for a woman traveling north to California. “Most of the songs on this record are a snapshot of a particular time or place in my life, or someone’s life who is close to me, and most of them are reflecting on some sort of loss,” says Lytle. “I guess a lot of my songs are technically stories, but more like vignettes which I hope people can bring their own interpretation and meaning to.”
Performing his music live with an ever-changing group of musicians, Lytle’s debut album strives to fill listeners with a sense of place – the tall pines, rolling hills, and blankets of enveloping coastal fog that define his home, the rural coastal mountains of Northern California. An album full of roots traditions, absorbing melodies, and intuitive harmonies help form visual narratives about life, faith, change, and loss; The End of Ours meets at the crossroads of folk, roots, country, and blues, to shape the distinct sound of Americana.
Alec Lytle & Them Rounders The End of Ours tracklisting:
1) North, CA
2) Ordinary Day
3) Frozen Ground
4) Train Long Gone
5) The River
6) Rain
7) The Fiona You’ll Never Know
8) This Must Be The Place (Talking Heads cover)
9) Used To
10) Underground
11) When I Go Deaf