Americana Highways is hosting this premiere of Jonny Burke’s song “Home For Thanksgiving,” from his upcoming album Behind the Pine Curtain, scheduled for release on April 26. The album was produced, engineered, and mixed by Don Cento at CenTone Studios in Austin.
Musicians on the album are Jonny Burke on vocals and guitars; Scott Davis on guitar, dobro, mandolin, and accordion; Will Dupuy on upright bass; Josh Bleu on drums and percussion; Cody Braun on fiddle. Alejandro Escovedo is on guest lead vocal on “I Fought the Law” (written by Sonny Curtis) on the album.
Jonny Burke offers an authentic edge to his songs and the clear, uncluttered production does the song justice. “Dad sent a postcard, it was postmarked ‘Huntsville’.” This song shares imagery of what happens to kids whose fathers are in prison — it’ll bring a lump to your throat. The new album was written about Burke’s own experiences in prison, and the entire collection is rare and piercingly real.
The songs on Behind the Pine Curtain are a conglomeration of things that happened to me, personally, or things that happened to other people while I was locked up with them or just fiction — all those kinda come together for a lot of these songs.
“Home for Thanksgiving,” is the fifth track on the record — it’s a little more on the fictional side; it’s a song that captures the essence of the more poignant sides, the more raw sides you see, of guys in prison who come from long histories where their dad was locked up, and their dad before them was locked up — it just seems like this hopeless situation.
The thought of the guy coming home to see his mother; the dad writing them to ask for stamps — his mom’s just assuming he’s gonna end up just like this dad did. It’s one of the stories I came up with and one of the last tracks I wrote for Behind the Pine Curtain. — Jonny Burke
Here is the song. Beneath the song is a video of Jonny talking about the song!
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