Drunken Prayer has a new album, The Name of the Ghost is Home, co-produced by Paul Oldham (Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Royal Trux) and Morgan Geer; mixed and mastered by Paul Oldham. The album will be available on April 22 via Fluff and Gravy Records.
All songs were written by Morgan Geer and it was recorded at Empty House in Albuquerque, New Mexico by Matthew Tobias, and overdubbed and edited at House of Morgan in Asheville, North Carolina.
Musicians on the album are Morgan Geer on vocals, bass, guitars, percussion and harmonica; Alex McMahon on pedal steel, guitars, portasound; Aaron Price on piano, Eric Slick on harpsichord and clavinet; Greg Williams on drums; Christa de Mayo on vocals; Leon Kern on vocals and crying; John James Tourville on fiddle, Patrick Hamilton on synthesizer, and Cal Seela on backing vocals.
“Sweetheart of the Picket Line” has several layers of meaning. “It’s a thrill to kill a mockingbird’ is the meanest thing I’ve ever heard/ you don’t have the weapons or the will,” is a real soul searcher about protests and taking a stand; about bullies and where power resides.
“Oasis in the Yard” starts out with a Beatles’ style intro and continues with joyful harmonies, while the rest of the song everywhere in between is a grungy backyard country song.
“She’s a Heart” pulls you into distortion once more, only to emerge in spacious love song: “she’s a heart, you’re a broken heart, I’m a diamond.”
Americana Highways premiered the video for the song “Landlines and Rabbit Ears (Nachos for One) here: Video Premiere: Drunken Prayer “Landlines and Rabbit Ears (Nachos For One).” This song is imageries of loneliness.
Hidden down at the second-to-last spot on the album, “Sunderland” is the most vulnerable song on the album. Flags flying at half mast, and bells are ringing for those who died too soon.
The title track closes the album with a faraway, haunting but compelling intro. Repeating the line “the name of the ghost is home,” it delivers a chilly feeling with grungy electric guitar. Is the ghost named “Home”? How ghostly and haunted is the home? The dissonant ambiguity is the point, until the clarity of single note melodies on the piano brings it to a close, and it could be the theme song to the next thriller film.
Morgan Geer’s songwriting is a mix of lightly humorous observations with more solemn pieces peppered throughout and good, genre blending grungy folksy country music. Find the album here:
http://fluffandgravy.com/store/drunken-prayer-the-name-of-the-ghost-is-home