My Old Kentucky Blog Nov 2010
In the course of my daily toils at MOKB, I’m frequently tempted to write things that I know I’ll regret. If I have nothing nice to say about a record, I toss it on the scrapheap and (not unlike Hova) it’s on to the next one. Of course, every know and then, I say something that’s misconstrued, or more likely, something that’s clearly offensive. I know I’ll regret it, but sometimes you just gotta let that devil out.
What’s far less common is regretting something you didn’t write.
And that brings me to Twilight Hotel. In 2008 the Winnepeg duo released Highway Prayer, a critically-praised record that I spun more than a few times on the strength of The Ballad Of Salvador And Isabelle, a sort of updated re-telling of Woody Guthrie’s Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos), and one of the most powerful songs I’ve heard in the last decade. I kept meaning to write about that record, or at least that song. I really did.
Since my snub, Brandy Zdan and Dave Quanbury have relocated to Austin and spent time in Los Angeles recording their third album, When The Wolves Go Blind with the help of producer John Whynot (Lucinda Williams, Blue Rodeo), drummer Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits, Mavis Staples) and bassist/multi-instrumentalist Jeff Turmes (Mavis Staples). When The Wolves Go Blind won’t be released until January 18th, but lead single Mahogany Veneer is very promising track that reminds me of stuff the criminally-underrated Paul K was dabbling in on A Wilderness Of Mirrors. So even if it’s not The Ballad Of Salvador And Isabelle (which everyone who is reading this should immediately track down) it does a fine job of setting the table for what I expect to be an outstanding record.
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