July 23, 2009

New Roadside Graves - "Work Itself Out"

thubmnail icon: New Roadside Graves - "Work Itself Out"

When posting a couple of tracks from Roadside Graves' excellent 18-track song cycle My Son's Home, I mentioned that in my Quit Your Day Job interview with frontman (and, as a full disclosure, old old friend) John Gleason told me a bit about the triumphant album closer "Word Itself Out":

[O]riginally written years back for our friend who was in jail, [it was] intended to be an optimistic song, yet he died two years ago, so now it's a fucking bummer song for us. But happy it's going to see the light of day.

Here it is in all its tear-jerking glory: "If you can't save your friend with a song / Tell me what the hell's the good of singing at all." Well, because even still, sometimes they come out as beautiful as this.

Roadside Graves - "Work Itself Out" (MP3)

My Son's Home is out via Autumn Tone. They've said this about it:

It was conceived of as an album about soldiers and their complicated struggles to forge identities and relationships in times of war. The idea was inspired by the Bobby Bond song "Six White Horses" and a short John Steinbeck novel entitled The Moon is Down (which we recently learned was also the basis for the film Red Dawn). Other subjects emerged during the writing sessions, and the record slowly evolved into an eighteen-song cycle about the lives of individuals, families, and friends in a variety of familiar settings: the homestead, the battlefield, the country and the city.

Appropriately, they're taking it on the road, across the States:

07/25 - New York, NY @ Trash Bar
07/28 - Wilmington, DE @ Mojo 13
07/29 - Washington, D.C. @ The Black and Red Bar
07/30 - Norfolk, VA @ The Taphouse
07/31 - Chapel Hill, NC @ Nightlight
08/01 - Birmingham, AL @ The Bottletree
08/02 - Athens, GA @ TBA
08/03 - Jackson, MS @ Martin's
08/04 - Hattiesburg, MS @ Thirsty Hippo
08/05 - Baton Rouge, LA @ Chelsea's
08/06 - New Orleans, LA @ Blue Nile
08/07 - Rikki Bailey's Tattoo Shop Longview, Texas
08/08 - Lambert's Austin, Texas
08/10 - Hotel Monte Vista Flagstaff, Arizona
08/11 - Soda Bar San Diego, California
08/12 - Knitting Factory w/ Parson Red Heads Los Angeles, California
08/13 - Long Beach, CA @ The Prospector
08/14 - Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex [Rock 'n' Roll Summer Circus]
08/15 - Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland
08/16 - San Francisco, CA @ Hotel Utah
08/20 - Lawrence, KS @ TBA
08/21 - Kansas City, MO @ Mike's Tavern
08/22 - Madison, WI @ Memorial Union Terrace
08/23 - St. Louis, MO @ LEMP
08/24 - Milwaukee, WI @ Club Garibaldi's
08/26 - Chicago, IL @ The Bottom Lounge
08/27 - Indianapolis, IN @ Vollrath Tavern
08/28 - Pontiac, MI @ The Vernors Room [at Crofoot]
08/29 - New Brunswick, NJ @ The Court Tavern
09/12 - Morrison, Colorado, @ Red rocks [Monolith Festival]