Description
Amber Waves is a solo album by the American singer and songwriter Bill Mallonee of Vigilantes of Love fame, Kickstarter-funded and independently released by Mallonee in November 2012. The album was recorded and mixed by Matt Riefler assisted by Trevor Clark.
Featuring Bill Mallonee on vocals, high string, acoustic, and electric guitars, harmonicas, mellotron, as well as synthesizer, backed by Jake Bradley on electric guitars and bass (with Bert Shoaff sitting in on bass on track 10) and Kevin Heuer on drums. Electric piano and strings on track 13 provided by Nathan Wall.
Between his tenure with legendary Athens, Ga., band Vigilantes of Love and his long-running solo career, Bill Mallonee has released a whopping 50 albums. That’s more than two a year and more than 500 songwriting credits. It’s a mighty count, a monument to one troubadour’s prolific muse, revealing a prodigious talent. A songwriter’s songwriter, he has a fine grasp on literate Americana, a firm belief in rock and roll as a redemptive force, and quite possibly a hole where his internal editor should be.
As enormous as his catalog may be, Mallonee’s music is strikingly modest: sturdy and straightforward, with no time for frills or fussiness. Anyone looking for an entry point into Mallonee’s oeuvre could do worse than his latest, Amber Waves, a thoughtful consideration of love, loss, grief and renewal on both a personal and national scale. The vibe is loose but not lackadaisical, as though he recorded only first takes live in the studio. The band is lively and just professional enough not to be too precise; this kind of rock thrives on rawness, spontaneity and imperfection. The guitars grind and chime as though trying to evoke every heart-on-sleeve rocker from Neil Young to Tom Petty, John Mellencamp to Craig Finn.
Mallonee’s wounded tenor reinforces the sense of personality and fixed perspective on Amber Waves, as though he’s trying to record America as he sees it – one venue at a time, with too many miles of highway in between: “I couldn’t find my name on your guest list once again,” he sings on «Break in the Clouds», “but the door-man of life just opens up and lets me in.” As a songwriter, Mallonee makes it look easy: The telling detail or the wrenching turn of phrase is always within ready reach, giving the impression of songs written on the fly, scribbled on diner napkins, weathered notebooks, random scraps of paper.
“Faith is a throw of dice, and the sleeping heart is stirred,” goes opener «Golden». “After ragged sentences, you’ll get the last word.” Immediately setting the stakes for the 12 songs that follow, Mallonee sounds weary but wise, as though rock and the road have given him a romantic’s insight into life’s joys and disappointments. What exactly does 50 albums get you? Just enough faith to make 50 more. [Stephen M. Deusner, Paste Magazine, December 2012]
Bill Mallonee has given new meaning to the word “prolific” in his long and storied career as a traveling troubadour, singer/songwriter, and all-around provocateur. When you put his work as the creative force and leader of the Athens, GA, band Vigilantes of Love with his fruitful solo career, he’s made 50 LPs worth of tunes. (Many of his WPA recordings never made the journey to plastic and were only available as digital downloads. Still, 2011’s The Power & The Glory and more so here on Amber Waves, Mallonee has captured the energy and creativity of his earliest, most celebrated albums in a way that his lo-fi digital collections could not. First, he’s joined by drummer Kevin Heuer and bassist Jake Bradley (both did a stint in VoL), and, thanks to the support of his Kickstarter fans, they’ve recorded in a real studio allowing for a more artful texture throughout. Of course, like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, two to whom Mallonee is often compared, there’s a certain repetitiveness across his lengthy catalog, but on Amber Waves – perhaps his best album in a decade – the guitars are more intricate and beautiful. The songs coalesce around the ideas of overcoming life’s cruel fates and hardships through the power of Love, who “always gets the last word.” It may well be that «Once Your Heart Gets Broken» and it “just keeps on breaking,” you learn a few things worth passing on: “A six-string drag through an old tweed amp/ healing spirits and breaking camp/ and the high desert kiss of my girl/ and God’s face is peaking ‘round the door/ in that high and lonesome tremolo/ and in Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World.’” It’s quite enough to make you look forward to the next 50 CDs. [Brian Quincy Newcomb, HM Magazine, April 2013 – Issue 165]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/amber-waves/1770420193)
CD tracklist:
01. Amber Waves (Golden) – 4:56
02. To The Nines – 4:28
03. One Kiss At A Time – 3:58
04. Faith Comes Soaked In Gasoline – 4:34
05. Long Since Gone – 5:03
06. Pillow Of Stars – 3:36
07. It Was Always Autumn In My Heart (But I Could Not Tell You Why) – 3:19
08. Once Your Heart Gets Broken (It Just Keeps On Breaking) – 4:11
09. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah (I Got Faith Like a Butterfly’s Wings) – 5:31
10. Break In The Clouds – 3:59
11. What You Take & What You Leave Behind – 3:17
12. Walking Disaster (Pale Light of The New Dark Age) – 3:09
13. Into God Knows What (Rejoinder) – 4:10
Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://billmalloneemusic.bandcamp.com/album/amber-waves-bill-mallonee-vigilantes-of-love-2012
CREDITS.
Musicians: Bill Mallonee (vocals, electric & acoustic guitars, high string guitars, harmonicas, mellotron, synth), Nathan Wall (electric piano), Jake Bradley (bass, electric guitars), Bert Shoaff (bass on “Break in the Clouds”), Kevin Heuer (drums).
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