Photo credit: Joe Navas
Boston-based master songcrafter Mark Erelli has released his new single “Rose-Colored Rearview,” a track from his forthcoming LP Blindsided, out March 27th via Soundly Music. “Nostalgia has a way of allowing us to gloss over certain parts of the past…Mark Erelli examines the ‘good old days’ through a different lens,” Wide Open Country said in its premiere of the song. “The song's final verse looks at how privilege plays a role in how you view days gone by.” "I wanted to land a bit of a lyrical gut-punch to finish the song, and just couldn't let go until I felt the last verse's visceral impact,” Erelli told Wide Open Country. “Though we certainly have a ways to go to improve things for all colors and creeds, I am fairly certain that longing for the 'good ol' days' is mainly another form of white privilege. I love how this track feels nostalgic and almost like a classic rock song you might have heard before -- until you pay attention to the lyrics.”
LISTEN: “ROSE-COLORED REARVIEW”
“Rose-Colored Rearview” follows the release of the title track via The Bluegrass Situation last month, and “A Little Kindness” via American Songwriter in January. “For Erelli, music is a way to appreciate the world and the people in his life,” American Songwriter remarked. “And perhaps most acutely, the practice of music has taught Erelli the beauty of sublimation and reinforced the joy of helping others achieve their dreams, which, in turn, helps Erelli also achieve his.”
LISTEN: “BLINDSIDED”
LISTEN: “A LITTLE KINDNESS”
Blindsided, a step in a different sonic direction for Erelli, is an unflinching examination of the distance between innocence and experience. The album was forged in a process of reckoning, of taking stock of the soul, and being pleasantly surprised. Mining the same gritty yet soulful territory as John Hiatt’s Bring The Family or Bonnie Raitt’s Nick Of Time, Erelli contemplates the delicate tension between love and commitment, faith and family, disillusionment and hope. But this isn’t a confession from the therapist’s couch, it’s rock ’n roll, and Erelli is clearly taking his cues from heroes like Petty and Prine. To create the soundtrack that reflected this reinvigorated approach to songwriting, Erelli consulted his mental list of fellow musicians with whom he had forged connections in recent years, and realized they all lived in Nashville. So, he made the trek to the Music City, with best friend and multi-instrumentalist/producer Zachariah Hickman in tow, curious to see what effect a change in geography, personnel, and context would produce. With the help of drummer Jamie Dick (Rhiannon Giddens, Our Native Daughters), guitarist Sadler Vaden (Jason Isbell, Josh Ritter), Kai Welch (Molly Tuttle, Kacey Musgraves) on keys, producer Hickman on bass, and Dan Knobler (Lake Street Dive, Caroline Spence) recording and mixing, the result couldn’t have been more unanticipated. Against the backdrop of Blindsided’s hungrier, hook-laden sound, with the inspired addition of a string quartet on half of the album, Erelli has never sounded more passionate or vital. Over the course of Blindsided’s 11 tracks, the message of each song is distilled to its purest form, as fearlessly honest in perspective as it is straightforward in its delivery.
Erelli has forged a colorful career by making the art of “being everywhere all the time” seem effortless. It’s hard to think of another artist who seems equally at home serving as a sideman for GRAMMY-winning artists like Paula Cole, Marc Cohn, and Josh Ritter, or producing albums for Lori McKenna, as he does writing and producing his own material, like last year’s “By Degrees,” on which he was joined by a host of voices including Rosanne Cash and Sheryl Crow. That song was nominated for “Song Of The Year” at the 2019 Americana Music Awards, and served to reintroduce Erelli to a wider audience. And just in time, because Blindsided combines the exuberance of Erelli’s signature sound with the wisdom that comes with over 20 years of songwriting, capturing an artist at a point in his career where he is clearly digging deep and swinging for the fences.
TOUR DATES
3/6 - The Stone Church - Brattleboro, VT
3/7 - Narrows Center For The Arts - Fall River, MA
3/20 - The Ark - Ann Arbor, MI
3/21 - The Kent Stage - Kent, OH
3/25 - Club Passim - Cambridge, MA
4/5 - G.A.R. Hall - Peninsula, OH
4/16 - The Basement - Nashville, TN
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4/23 - Ripspique Lier, Lier, Belgium
4/24 - Tivoli Vredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands
4/25 - SPOT Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
4/26 - Theater Junushoff, Wageningen, Netherlands
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4/29 - Rogue Theatre - Grants Pass, OR
4/30 - Aladdin Theater - Portland, OR
5/1 - Historic Everett Theatre - Everett, WA
5/2 - McMenamins Elks Temple - Tacoma, WA
5/6 - Rockwood Music Hall - New York, NY
5/7 - Philadelphia Folksong Society - Philadelphia, PA
5/8 - The Parlor Room - Northampton, MA
5/9 - Club Passim - Cambridge, MA
5/12 - Woodbury Brewing Company - Woodbury, CT
5/13 - One Longfellow Square - Portland, ME
5/14 - Caffe Lena - Saratoga Springs, NY
5/15 - The Word Barn - Exeter, NH
5/17 - Cotuit Center for the Arts - Cotuit, MA
5/19 - Hangin’ & Sangin @ Bearsville Theater, Woodstock, NY
5/21 - The Kessler Theater - Dallas, TX
5/22 - The Paramount Theatre, Austin, TX