Highly recommend & future mania-classic!
As may be discerned from the title and tracklist, it's a love letter of sorts to some of Kurt’s musical heroes and to Nashville, where it was recorded. It has two covers of John Prine — 'Speed of the Sound of Loneliness’ and ‘How Lucky’ — with Prine himself appearing on vocals and guitar on the latter, in one of his final recordings made at the beginning of this year. Elsewhere it features two new original Kurt Vile songs (‘Dandelions’, ‘Pearls’), and a cover of Cowboy Jack Clement (‘Gone Girl’).
The recordings feature a truly all-star cast of musicians including Dan Auerbach (Black Keys), Matt Sweeney, and a host of legendary Nashville session players including 'You Are Always On My Mind’ keyboardist Bobby Wood (Wille Nelson, Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash), bassist Dave Roe (Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Jerry Reed), mandolin player Pat McLaughlin (Johnny Cash, Jack Clement, Neil Diamond), and drummer Kenny Malone (John Prine, Tony Joe White).
Most importantly, it features what Kurt Vile has called "Probably the single most special musical moment in my life” –a duet with the late John Prine on the songwriter’s well-loved tune, “How Lucky.” “The truth is John was my hero for a long time when he came into The Butcher Shoppe to recut one of his deepest classics with me. And, man, I was floating and flying and I couldn't hear anything he told me while he was there till after he was gone for the night,” notes Vile in a personal statement that accompanies the record. “A couple nights later we were playing ‘How Lucky’ together again; this time onstage at the Grand Ole Opry on New Year's Eve at the turn of 2020. Nothing like seeing John and his band of musical brothers and family and friends playing into the new decade in front of an adoring audience on that stage in Nashville, TN... and, yup, that's just how lucky we all got that night."
- 1. Speed of the Sound of Loneliness
- 2. Gone Girl
- 3. Dandelions
- 4. How Lucky (With John Prine)
- 5. Pearls
