RYANHOOD RELEASES SINGLE “THE FIGHT” & ANNOUNCES NEW LP "UNDER THE LEAVES" OUT ON APRIL 16TH

TUCSON ACOUSTIC DUO RYANHOOD TO RELEASE NEW LP

UNDER THE LEAVES ON APRIL 16TH

FIRST SINGLE “THE FIGHT” OUT EVERYWHERE TODAY

“THE FIGHT”

 SPOTIFY // SOUNDCLOUD

Award-winning Tucson, Arizona-based duo Ryanhood is thrilled to announce their latest album, Under The Leaves, set for release on April 16th. American Songwriter announced the upcoming LP with the premiere of lead single “The Fight.”

“The more we fight, the more we invigorate the thing we’re fighting against. And without knowing it, the more we as people eventually become the kind of thing we’re fighting against,” Ryanhood vocalist and lyricist Cameron Hood told American Songwriter about the song’s premise of cultural scapegoating. “It’s not about telling another person or group how they should be processing their fears or hurts differently,” he continues. “It’s about noticing how you do it. It has to start with you… with me.” Hood drew inspiration from the likes of French historian René Girard and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, Martin Luther King, Jr., and even Psalm 46. The message is intelligent but never pretentious, and shines against the backdrop of bandmate Ryan David Green’s intricate guitar work and arrangement. 

“‘The Fight’ and its intellectualism is a strange though perfectly complementary companion to its mainstream indiepop sensibility,” says American Songwriter. “While the rhythm clutches the primal hunger for melodicism, the subject matter challenges you to reach in deep and ponder what it takes to achieve peace, eventually encircling the truth that change can only come from within.”

Named ‘Best Group/Duo’ in the 2014 International Acoustic Music Awards, Ryanhood got their first break more than a decade ago as street-performers at Boston’s Quincy Market. They’ve since gone on to perform more than a thousand shows in 45 U.S. states over the past decade, and have shared stages with Jason Mraz, Matt Nathanson, Train, and many more. 

Their latest album, Under the Leaves, sees the lead guitarist Green stepping into the role of sole producer, weaving a tapestry of lush strings and rich harmonies. The album, like their shows, is driven by strong acoustic guitar performances and is at turns energetic, hopeful, and quietly moving—a musical invitation to breathe, and to soak in a river of melodies and harmonic hooks. 

Hood, the band’s primary lyricist, has waded into those musical rivers with dream-like verses about seeds and forests, breath and wind, and the cycles and seasons that frame our lives. Throughout the album’s songs, a question is asked: How do we create meaningful and lasting change in a world filled with division and turmoil? The offer on Under the Leaves is to slow down and face the one thing we have the power to change - ourselves - as the duo sings on the album’s second track, “the only revolution is the one within.” 

Under The Leaves will be available digitally, as well as on vinyl and CD. The band has also written a companion book, featuring essays and stories behind the songs, expanded artwork, and photography that is also available for purchase. Click HERE to order.

UNDER THE LEAVES TRACKLIST

UNDER THE LEAVES

THE FIGHT

SEEING IN THE DARK

I DIDN’T HAVE THE CHANCE

APPY RETURNS

GONE BEFORE I GO

NOT ALONE

WIDE AWAKE IN A DREAM

RUINS

MORNING BREAKING 

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OUT TODAY: MARK ERELLI’S NEW LP "BLINDSIDED" VIA SOUNDLY MUSIC

“...soars on the wings of jangly guitars, heartfelt vocals and soulful harmony lines...Yep, that's the sweet spot right there. And there's enough of it to make this album matter." - The Associated Press

“Erelli’s not going to blindside you. He’s going to give it to you straight.” - The Boston Globe

"...finds him trimming back the guest list and nodding to another icon, heartland hero Tom Petty, whose influence looms large over the song’s 12-string guitar jangle and straightforward vocal hooks." - Rolling Stone

"Comes out swinging" - The Boot

“Blindsided is a bit of Americana alchemy, a concoction that can only be served up by someone who knows the rules inside and out — enough to break them when needed.” - No Depression

"For Erelli, music is a way to appreciate the world and the people in his life. 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." - American Songwriter 

"...a really wonderful record. Go for a walk… listen, become happy." - Maine Public Radio

"...echoes Tom Petty and John Prine" - PopMatters

"...a serious, talented artist, but he also understands his role as a storyteller and entertainer...Erelli pulls from lots of places and makes things his own." - Glide Magazine

"Blindsided is ballad heavy with a rocker cut here, a mid-tempo groove there, it is a nod to Mark Erelli’s diversity that the album showcases an ability to cross genre lines." - The Alternate Root

"You know those artists who release a great first record and then have enormous trouble following it up with anything as interesting? Yeah, that’s not Mark Erelli. Mark has consistently expanded his sound while also not chasing whatever wave seems to be cresting at any given moment. The result is a catalogue of depth and heart." - Red Line Roots

"Erelli has a way with words that really hits in the world we live in now…this album is very well done, and Erelli shows that as a songwriter, he is worthy of emulation.” - Americana Highways

"Mark Erelli has taken a new direction, delving deeper into his rockier side.  A roots-rockier side that has room for a few strings and a pile of melody." - Americana-UK

"...songs and songwriting of a quality rarely encountered. Mark Erelli’s Blindsided. Don’t tell me you didn’t see it coming. Most highly recommended." - Fervor Coulee

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LISTEN: BLINDSIDED

Today, Boston-based singer/songcrafter Mark Erelli released his highly-acclaimed new album, Blindsided - an unflinching examination of the distance between innocence and experience from “the middle” of life’s fantastic journey. It’s also a step in a different sonic direction for the award-winning artist; “Erelli is…a foursquare acoustic songwriter in an age of digital audio workstations. For Blindsided he has amped up with a superb band,” noted The Boston Globe in its premiere of the album. “Blindsided says just as much about who he is as it does about where he’s been. The secrets are embedded in the restraint of the 11-song set, a collection efficient yet varied, emotional yet exact,” said No Depression, who called Erelli “an expert craftsman.”

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 Music City, with best friend and multi-instrumentalist/producer Zachariah Hickman (Josh Ritter, Ray LaMontagne) 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.  

WATCH: “I CAN’T STAND MYSELF”

WATCH: “BLINDSIDED”

Blindsided 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. 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. “In one of my favorite Tom Petty songs, he sings ‘it took a world of trouble, took a world of tears, it took a long time to get back here,’” Erelli says. “I think I know exactly how he felt.”  

Erelli will live stream an album release show on April 9th at 8:00 pm EDT from The Parlor Room in Northampton, Massachusetts, click HERE for more information. Be sure to follow him via the links below for updates.

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MARK ERELLI EXPLORES FAITH & DOUBT IN “I CAN’T STAND MYSELF"

Boston-based singer/songcrafter Mark Erelli has unveiled a live performance video of “I Can’t Stand Myself,” a new track off his LP Blindsided, due out via Soundly Music next Friday, March 27th. The track pairs a Bo Diddly beat with an exploration of faith and doubt. “We value faith highly in America, and there is an overarching feeling that you have to believe in something. But doubt can be as powerful as a locomotive, and on this song, I tie myself to the tracks,” Erelli explains of “I Can’t Stand Myself. “I’ve always thought of myself as a good person, but if that is true, then why do I occasionally let people down or hurt them?” “'I Can't Stand Myself’ comes out swinging with a jangly piano riff, then leads into Erelli's distinctive vocals,” says The Boot in its premiere of the video, which features Erelli along with Jake Armerding on fiddle.

WATCH: “I CAN’T STAND MYSELF”

“I Can’t Stand Myself” follows “Rose-Colored Rearview,” in which Erelli confronts the current haze of nostalgia about “the good ol’ days,” which has a way of allowing us to gloss over certain parts of the past. "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, who premiered the song. “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”

Erelli released a video for the title track via The Bluegrass Situation, and call to empathy “A Little Kindness” via American Songwriter, who said, “For Erelli, music is a way to appreciate the world and the people in his life…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 & WATCH: “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. 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.  

In light of show cancellations and concerns over the spread of COVID-19, Erelli and a number of other folk and Americana artists will participate in an online festival, “Shut In & Sing,” streaming live via StageIt.com between March 19th and April 11th. Erelli will perform on Friday, March 20th, along with Anne Heaton, Mary Bragg, and Becky Warren. Tickets, on a pay-what-you-can basis, can be purchased HERE. Tour dates are listed below, be sure to follow Mark Erelli via the links below for updates.

TOUR DATES
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*

*w/ Lori McKenna   

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