Richard Edwards VERDUGO RELEASE DATE : June 1, 2018 CATALOG # : JNR258 LP-C1 UPC: 714270692086 AVAILABLE FORMATS : LP / CD GENRE : Indie Folk LP UPC: 714270691928 BOX LOT QUANTITY : 10 LP / 30 CD PACKAGING : JACKET / WALLET VINYL NON-RETURNABLE. CD UPC: 714270691911 TRACK LISTING : OVERVIEW : 1 4:36 Richard Edwards felt almost human when he returned to Los Angeles to record Gene songs for what became Verdugo, out June 1. It’s the follow-up to the Indiana singer’s 2 Beekeeper 3:42 2017 album Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset, a beautiful, personal release that was deeply 3 Mineeld 4:22 unpleasant to make. Not only was he aicted at the time by an intestinal ailment 4 5:09 that often left him unable to stand, let alone sing, his marriage fell apart midway A Woman Who Can’t Say No through making the album. 5 Howlin’ Heart 3:53 If Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset ended up being a record about letting go, Verdugo is 6 Olive Oyl 3:15 the album where Edwards pulls himself up after falling down. “e making of it was 7 2:57 Something Wicked kind of my recovery from all the stu,” says Edwards, who worked again with 8 Tornado Dreams 0:28 producer Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck) in L.A. “I went back and wasn’t as sick, so making the second one, and nishing it, was a much, much more joyous event.” 9 Strange 3:47 10 Pornographic Teens 3:41 Verdugo features 10 new songs that showcase Edwards’ considerable and longstanding talent as a writer, and also a new way of singing: Edwards’ chronic pain meant nding VINYL INCLUDES DOWNLOAD a vocal approach that didn’t make him feel like throwing up. “I sing in a half-falsetto high range that came out of not being able to belt stu out for a year,” Edwards says. His new vocal style deepens the air of melancholy on the atmospheric “Strange,” takes on a wistful cast on “Beekeeper” over subtle drums and a distinctive guitar part, and is lifted aloft on a soaring blend of guitars, drums and backing vocals on “Mineeld.” “ey kind of disappear in this weird sky sonically now, because of this range,” he says. “ey don’t feel rooted anymore, they y all over, and that falsetto — if you’re looking at it as a picture, it goes higher up in the room than it used to.” RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE : is is Edwards’ second solo album after more than a decade leading the Indianapolis band Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s, which he founded in 2004. When health Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s problems made touring with Margot impossible, Edwards turned inward and began Elliott Smith writing songs “loosely inspired by all one learns, and fails to learn, while dealing with Neil Young one’s own mortality,” as he wrote in a piece for Talkhouse. Big Star Verdugo is completely Edwards, the result of an agonizing stretch of dissolution and, over time, regeneration. Best of all, it’s not an end point, but merely the next station on a continuing journey. “It’s somewhere between that last record and what will happen after that, and what was going to happen before,” he says. “It comes from three years of having to get really quiet, and gure out what grows out of that.” joyful noise recordings 1030 Orange St | Indianapolis, IN 46203 joyfulnoiserecordings.com [email protected].