Marcus King has joined forces with country singer-songwriter ERNEST for “Blue,” a new song released today, September 25, via American Recordings/Republic Records.

ERNEST wrote the song with Jacob Durett in 2018, but said it never found a home on one of his projects. Years later, he sent King a demo and suggested he record it. The two eventually got into the studio together, where singer Briley King also contributed vocals.

“It’s always been a favor[ite] of mine, but never fit on a project at the moment for me,” says ERNEST. “When Marcus heard it and said he would do it, it’s like it was just waiting on him all along. I absolutely love him and his craft. Very thankful to get to work with him on this record.”

“ERNEST sent me a demo of ‘Blue’ and simply said, ‘You need to cut this song.’ I agreed, and then we both forgot about it,” adds King. “It wasn’t until both of our better halves reminded us, and insisted that I record the song, that I had my producer Eddie book some studio time. Ern and I sang the song once, maybe twice, and as fate would have it, Briley was close by tracking vocals with a friend that day. They dropped in and added the icing on top. To me, it’s a true representation of the camaraderie and community that STILL exists in Nashville. Singers, songwriters and vagabonds all getting together to make music for all the right reasons.”

The collaboration follows the Marcus King Band’s expanded May release of Darling Blue / No Room For Blue. King and his band are touring through the end of the year, including a September 27 appearance at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in Austin and a New Year’s Eve show at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre. Get tickets here.

UPCOMING TOUR DATES
September 25—Louisville, KY—Bourbon & Beyond
September 27—Austin, TX—Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival
September 29—Birmingham, AL—Coca-Cola Amphitheater§
October 1—The Woodlands, TX—The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion§
October 2—Bossier City, LA—Margaritaville Resort Casino
December 2—Anaheim, CA—House of Blues Anaheim
December 3—Las Vegas, NV—The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas
December 4—Fresno, CA—Warnors Theatre
December 5—Reno, NV—Grand Sierra Resort and Casino
December 31—Atlanta, GA—Fox Theatre (Toy Factory Project)
§ with Mumford & Sons

Now, a limited release and overlooked 1994 Bill Pursell album, The Good Years, has been rebalanced, remastered, and reissued on the Netcom Music label, which Laura Pursell discussed with us as we celebrate today on National Daughter’s Day today in a year that would have been Bill Pursell’s 100th birthday.

Bill Pursell

The Good Years

Netcom Music (CD and digital formats)

GOLDMINE: A decade ago, my daughter Brianna and I interviewed you and your dad for a Father’s Day article. Now I welcome you back for a National Daughter’s Day article, with these 1994 performances by your dad, which is around the time when I first learned of your music. How did this come to be?

LAURA PURSELL: My husband David heard the original recordings and asked, “Where in the world did this recording come from? Your dad sounds like Oscar Peterson. I can’t believe that your dad made this recording and it just got shelved and forgotten about when he went onto other projects.” Now I think it is time to properly share this music in 2026, the year of what would have been my dad’s 100th birthday. Oscar Peterson was Dad’s favorite jazz pianist, which explains why he may have sounded like him on this recording. He loved how Oscar could expand across the piano keyboard with his big hands. He met him one time, and after seeing him play in person, Dad said, “That’s it. I have got to play other music. I know I can’t play jazz like him.”

GM: Your dad’s version of “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz is absolutely beautiful.

LP: Dad absolutely loved Judy Garland. He had such an affinity for her. He loved that movie, which debuted when he was a teenager, and he loved that song. We sang it a couple of times together. He hated the way Judy Garland was mistreated by Hollywood. He believed that the song was one of innocence and hope, so I am not surprised that he included it in the album.

GM: “All the Things You Are” is one that I didn’t know, and I love how it evolves into a bossa nova song.

LP: This is a song that Dad would whip out at parties. When we were performing together, this is one we would always do. I didn’t realize that the arrangement we used is the one created for this album. It starts as a ballad, then goes into a bossa nova beat like you mentioned, then it swings really hard, and returns to the relaxed bossa nova style. It gave Dad a chance to expand and play all over the place. He would always whip the music chart out of his briefcase and play it. He said it had a Latin bug to it. As a vocal reference, I would say that Ella Fitzgerald was my favorite singer of this song, which is probably how I learned it originally.

GM: “Route 66” has a fun and lively jazz sound, with the bass and drums being prominent.

LP: It sounds like you are truly traveling. Craig Nelson played bass and was a good bit younger than my dad when this project happened. He still plays around Nashville. Buddy Harmon was a legend, one of the most recorded drummers in Nashville history. He played with my dad a lot in Nashville, and they were friends from way back. In fact, they played for JFK at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in the early ‘60s, with Chet Atkins on guitar.

GM: There is a pair of songs which start out nicely with your dad’s piano playing, and then string arrangements kick in, adding even more beauty on “Georgia on My Mind” and “Someone to Watch Over Me.”

LP: My dad did those string arrangements on a Kurzweil keyboard. They were MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) keyboard strings, as they didn’t have a string section when they recorded the album on a tight budget. Later on, Dad would bring in the entire Nashville Orchestra. He was known for his string arrangements and was hired as a string arranger on many projects because of his expertise. There weren’t many people in Nashville who could do what Dad did. He brought a sheen and polish to records he was involved with.

GM: The album ends with your dad’s original composition, the title tune “The Good Years” which has a timeless sound.

LP: It is beautiful. He wrote it for the album as a curtain closer, following ten of his favorite songs from the past. Stephan Oberhoff remastered and rebalanced all eleven tracks on the album and fixed a few bass notes. The Good Years album has a richer up-to-date sound, and finally, the album is exactly how Dad intended it to be heard.

“The Good Years album has a richer up-to-date sound, and finally, the album is exactly how Dad intended it to be heard.” – Laura Pursell

Laura and Bill Pursell, 1977, courtesy of Laura Pursell

GM: In addition to The Good Years, you have a beautiful new vocal single out which I am enjoying, “Stop My Heart,” in a style which would have been nice as a bonus track on your dad’s CD.

LP: Thank you. I wrote it with Stephan. We both wrote the music and lyrics. This bossa nova tune is about someone landing in your life, a person you know is dangerous, irresistible, and will probably break your heart, or maybe someone who is just not right for you, and you know it, yet this person has a certain power over you. The singer is begging the universe to “stop my heart from falling.” Thank you for honoring my dad’s work and my music over the years. It has certainly been an honor for both of us, working with you. You have touched our family.

For classic piano oriented albums you may enjoy in our Goldmine store (see below):

Click here to get the above items (and more!) in the Goldmine store

Related Links:

laurapursell.com

Goldmine 2023: Laura Pursell finishes her father’s final album

Goldmine 2020 Bill Pursell In Memoriam

Goldmine Contributing Editor Warren Kurtz, a long-time music journalist and author, can be contacted at fabulousflipsides.com

U2 have announced Carnaval De Luz, their first studio album of new material in nine years. The 12-track LP arrives November 13, and the band has shared a new song and video, “Silencio,” to mark the announcement.

Produced by Jacknife Lee, the album includes contributions from Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Its closing track, “Torn,” is a duet between Bono and Dolly Parton. According to the band, it was Parton’s final recorded vocal performance.

“Roll up, roll up, roll up!” Bono said in a statement that arrived with the album announcement. “Bring your purple socks, your broken hearts, your rose-tinted naivety… oh be amazed in the hall of mirrors. There will be loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms and, yes, some silver tears will make an appearance!

“Cause in the near distance just outside our carnival of light there are all kinds of creatures… the same imagination that brings us our creativity can also bring us monsters. So we make the drums louder. We build a bigger fire. We make our stories wilder and funnier. We make the melodies sweeter and the songs, they better shine, because if the world is in darkness we better not be.”

Carnaval De Luz follows the band’s two 2026 EPs, Days of Ash and Easter Lily. See the album art and track list below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Go (Carnaval De Luz)”
02 “La Reina”
03 “Street Of Dreams”
04 “The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)”
05 “Superficiality”
06 “If The World Is At War We Better Not Be”
07 “Silencio”
08 “The Greatest Show On Earth”
09 “Glorify”
10 “Midnight Sunshine”
11 “Can’t Stop Us Now”
12 “Torn” (Feat. Dolly Parton)

U2 ‘CARNAVAL DE LUZ’ 3LP BOX SET

TRACKLIST

1. Go (Carnaval De Luz)
2. La Reina
3. Street Of Dreams
4. The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)
5. Superficiality
6. If The World Is At War We Better Not Be
7. Silencio
8. The Greatest Show On Earth
9. Glorify
10. Midnight Sunshine
11. Can’t Stop Us Now
12. Torn
13. American Obituary
14. The Tears Of Things
15. Song Of The Future
16. Wildpeace
17. One Life At A Time
18. Yours Eternally
19. Song For Hal
20. In A Life
21. Scars
22. Resurrection Song
23. Easter Parade
24. COEXIST (I Will Bless The Lord At All Times?)

U2 ‘CARNAVAL DE LUZ’ 3CD BOX SET

U2 ‘CARNAVAL DE LUZ’ CD

Morrissey will release two limited-edition 7-inch singles on black vinyl October 16, each featuring a previously unreleased B-side recorded during the sessions for his latest album, Make-Up Is a Lie.

“Kerching Kerching” will be backed with “Isle of Dogs,” co-written with Alain Whyte. The second single pairs “Zoom Zoom the Little Boy” with “Without Music the World Dies,” co-written with Gustavo Manzur. Both B-sides will also arrive on streaming services October 16. The sleeves feature archival photographs by Jake Walters and Tina Dehghani, respectively.

Released in March via Sire/Warner Records, Make-Up Is a Lie is Morrissey’s 14th solo studio album. He begins a U.S. tour October 15, with a headlining appearance at California’s Darker Waves festival scheduled for November 14. See tour dates below, and pre-order the 7-inch singles here.

MORRISSEY, “Kerching Kerching”
Side A: “Kerching Kerching” / Side B: “Isle of Dogs”

MORRISSEY, “Zoom Zoom the Little Boy”
Side A: “Zoom Zoom the Little Boy” / Side B: “Without Music The World Dies”

MORRISSEY LIVE 2026:

26 Sep – CBGB Festival @ Brooklyn, NY, US

30 Sep – Lowell Memorial Auditorium @ Lowell, MA

15 Oct – The Anthem @ Washington, DC

18 Oct – Steven Tanger Center of The Performing Arts @ Greensboro, NC

21 Oct – Louisville Palace @ Louisville, KY

25 Oct – The Pinnacle @ Nashville, TN

29 Oct – Dickies Arena @ Fort Worth, TX

01 Nov – 713 Music Hall @ Houston, TX

06 Nov – Don Haskins Center @ El Paso, TX

10 Nov – Mullett Arena @ Tempe, AZ

14 Nov – Darker Waves Festival @ Huntington Beach, CA, US

03 Dec – La Seine Musicale @ Paris, France

06 Dec – Brighton Centre @ Brighton, UK

10 Dec – Cardiff Utilita Arena @ Cardiff, UK

12 Dec – M&S Bank Arena @ Liverpool, UK

16 Dec – OVO Hydro @ Glasgow, UK

19 Dec – First Direct Bank Arena @ Leeds, UK

28 Dec – 013 Poppodium @ Tilburg, Netherlands 31 Dec – Forest National @ Brussels, Belgium

Heavy-metal fans can now get a first look at Ozzy’s last performance with the newly released trailer for Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back to the Beginning, ahead of its global theatrical debut on October 28.

Produced by Mercury Studios and distributed worldwide by Trafalgar Releasing, the concert film captures the final live performance from Ozzy Osbourne alongside the original Black Sabbath lineup: guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward.

The film captured a landmark moment in music history: Ozzy’s historic farewell performance for his fans in his Birmingham hometown, which was captured just 17 days before his passing.

“Back to the Beginning came about because I asked Ozzy what would really make him happy,” says Sharon Osbourne. “And he said the only thing that would make him happy was if he could perform again and say goodbye to his fans. That’s all he wanted to do. He wanted to say goodbye and thank you.”

“It was a closure for the band and it was a good way to go out, I think,” said Tony Iommi.

Along with the Sabbath reunion — the first time its original members performed together in more than 20 years — the sold out Back to the Beginning show at Birmingham’s Villa Park stadium on July 5 last year also included a solo set from Ozzy.

Actor Jason Momoa hosted the event with Tom Morello serving as its Musical Director. The epic night also included sets from Alice in Chains, Anthrax, Gojira, Guns N Roses, Halestorm, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Metallica, Pantera, Rival Sons, Slayer, and Tool, along with All-Star segments with special guests Adam Wakeman, Andrew Watt, Billy Corgan, Chad Smith, David Draiman, David Ellefson, Jake E. Lee, KK Downing, Mike Bordin, Nuno Bettencourt, Papa V Perpetua (Ghost), Ronnie Wood, Rudy Sarzo, Sammy Hagar, Sleep Token II, Steven Tyler, Travis Barker, Vernon Reid, Whitfield Crane, and Yungblud.

“To me it was like pure love. It was just a wave of love. It’s the only way I can describe it really. I mean I could feel it as if it is like tangible,” said Geezer Butler.

“Felt completely at home in a place where I belong,” said Bill Ward.”It almost felt like I was in a dream.“

Tickets for the worldwide cinema release go on sale Thursday, September 24, starting at 7:00 AM PT / 10:00 AM ET / 3:00 PM BST / 4:00 PM CEST. Go here for more information: backtothebeginning.com.

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By TONE Scott

In the entire scope of the modern day classic soul and R&B music revival, there are many respectable acts whose contributions to the movement have been not only substantial, but are an accurate representation of the early music to the point of spawning nostalgia. Creating a huge dividing line between mainstream contemporary pop/hip hop-tinged R&B; the classic soul revival pays blatant and bona fide homage to the foundational roots of soul and rhythm & blues in a way that greatly honors while retrospectively introducing the modern generations of music fans to the great soul music of the classic era. With all of the modern day recording acts that we can name who shine a bright light into this soul and R&B resurrection of sorts, there are only a small handful that can be credited with having a progenitive contribution on the modern day representation of the genre. What this means is that there was merely a small group of recording artists circa the early 2000s who put a musical foot forward, taking a chance that their contributions would lead to a revival, and thankfully it did. One of these who can be acknowledged amongst those very few is the Boston suburb native, Massachusetts-bred Eli “Paperboy” Reed.

From hosting a Chicago-based soul music radio show in the early 2000s, to then returning to Boston to record and release his now iconic debut album, Sings Walkin’ and Talkin’ and Other Smash Hits (an album that Goldmine has called ‘essential‘), Reed can be confidently mentioned alongside the greats such as Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Amy Winehouse, and the breakout popularity of soul man Lee Fields with regard to those whose music first sowed seed into the modern day soul and rhythm & blues revival. With nine full-length studio albums to his credit, a handful of EP albums, several live albums, countless single releases and one compilation record all since 2005, the artist has most definitely solidified his place in the hierarchy of new millennium classic soul and R&B. On September 11, Reed released Getting There; one of, if not the most intriguing album in his repertoire. While we feel all of his past efforts are beyond praise-worthy listens, it is the production dynamic of his latest effort that had Goldmine reeling with anticipation of taking a deep dive into the record. When we were first made privy to the information that the legendary funk, rhythm & blues and soul icon Swamp Dogg was put at the production helm of Reed’s upcoming album, we couldn’t get our hands on an advanced copy quick enough. On September 14 of this month, Goldmine sat down with Mr. Reed in an intimate one-on-one where we inquired about many of the nooks and crannies with regard to this fantastic new album, and here is what transpired…

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Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed talks about Getting There

GOLDMINE: Eli, thanks so much for spending some time with Goldmine. At this point we’re just over 20 years from your now iconic debut album with several more that have laced your discography over that time. Could you describe for us what your outlook was on your music back then juxtaposed to your outlook now with regard to the new record?

ELI ‘PAPERBOY’ REED: Well, I think then I was writing music because I thought I had to, because I didn’t want to be an artist who just did covers. I’ve always been a little bit of a jukebox, and I still like to play everything from Hank Williams to Bobby Bland to Howlin’ Wolf and Ray Charles; all that stuff has been mixed into me forever. That’s sort of where I was at the beginning of my career. I spent time playing in these clubs and that’s what you had to be able to do, play like four hours and a bunch of stuff like that. Then I kinda realized that if I was going to make a go of it seriously, that I had to write my own songs, but in a way, the songs that I was writing were more like just versions of the things I was already playing. Whereas I think now I’m trying to make music that I want to hear and that represent a combination of things that I love and where I’m at now. Now I’m writing songs I have something that I can really talk about as opposed to make something that fits into a particular mold.

GM: Let’s get into that a little deeper. It was your sophomore [solo] record, Come and Get It, where except for maybe one cover tune we really began experiencing your original compositions. From that point until now, where would you say that you are mentally, emotionally and creatively as a songwriter?

EPR: Truthfully, I think I’m a better songwriter now than I ever was. I mean, I think with every record I developed more. Don’t get me wrong, I love all my records one way or another. I think there’s a couple of songs on every record that I felt like these were the ones that really ‘got it.’ And I think that now I can take all of my experiences over those times and make something that is more identifiable to me. Songwriting has never been super easy for me; sometimes it’s something that I have to force myself to do, but then when I get down to it I know how to write in my own voice now. I have this list of notes where I write down ideas; titles or phrases that pop into my head so I can come back to them later. For this record I forced myself to finish one idea everyday for like six straight weeks, so when it really comes down to it, that’s kinda my working ethos.

GM: So, you have this brand new album, Getting There, and we feel it stands out for many reasons. However, one of the main reasons is that while you’ve worked a couple of times in the past with great producers other than yourself, for this album you brought in a soul and R&B legend to take that roll. Would you like to share with us who that is and how it happened?

EPR: Absolutely, I’m very happy to be able to call Swamp Dogg my producer here as well as an inspiration of mine. We actually toured together in Spain in 2014; we did a few shows there. At that time I had never met Swamp; I had been a fan of his for years, both his solo work as well as a producer and a songwriter. So during this time I just kinda went and started bothering him and picking his brain and he was just super willing to engage with me. Then he saw me on stage and based on the some of the wonderful things he’s said about me in interviews I think it kinda blew his mind that I was doing what I was doing, and we just had this great connection. I’ve always really valued Swamp as a very thoughtful guy from a producer to songwriter to an artist and he’s always made music that is very ‘adult;’ I call it grown-folks music, music that was very serious. So when I started writing for this record I didn’t even know if he was producing anymore but I thought it was worth a shot. I had some other ideas but I thought why not try Swamp Dogg even though he hadn’t produced another artist aside from his own records for many years. He even told me eventually when we got into the studio that he was a bit nervous about producing again which I actually found to be quite flattering that he would be nervous to produce my record. I think that it just made sense to me even though I didn’t really know what it was going to be like. The idea certainly made sense on paper, but I didn’t know what Swamp Dogg was going to be like in the studio as a musician in his eighties. I had some idea because I’d spent a lot of time with him, but literally up until the day we started I just wasn’t sure.

GM: At what point in your life did you become aware of him as a recording artist, began listening to him and first experienced his music?

EPR: I believe it was actually the Doris Duke record that he produced and wrote the songs for called I’m a Loser (1970) which was right before ‘Swamp Dogg’ became a thing; he was still Jerry Williams Jr. at that time. Ya know, I just thought that record sounded amazing; it didn’t sound like any other soul records that I was aware of at the time. He recorded a lot of that stuff at Mussel Shoals but he didn’t use all the famous Mussel Shoals session guys. He got these other guys that he loved that really didn’t do a lot of other recording, plus his piano playing was very distinctive and his songs were just extremely identifiable. You put on a Swamp Dogg song from any artist and you can pretty much identify it as something he wrote or something he worked on almost immediately.

GM: Swamp Dogg is a brilliant artist, and a favorite of ours for sure, however, he is known to be a bit risqué or even explicit at times in his music. People knowing that may think those contexts may have carried over into your album, nevertheless, they don’t. So then, how would you describe the context or the overall theme of the new record?

EPR: Just to digress a little; I think that most people don’t give Swamp Dogg the credit that he is due as a producer, songwriter, empresario, label owner, and they just see the schtick or whatever of Swamp Dogg. I came to Swamp Dogg’s records later and started with him as a producer and songwriter before all that, so for me it made perfect sense. And for me, because those earlier records were so grown up and so serious, this whole idea of grown-folks music, it made perfect sense to me to have him as the producer. I know that some people have kinda thought of him as this sort of iconoclastic out-in-left-field artist, but for me, I never really saw him that way. I’ve always thought of him as really serious, really thoughtful, and extremely well-versed as a listener and he definitely deserves way more respect than he does.

GM: …And we agree, 100-percent. Now, the new album sounds sonically less polished, or maybe a better term might be ‘audibly less modern’ than previous efforts though in a really good way, slightly more vintage sounding than previous albums. The engineering resonates almost as if this thing came out of a studio in the late- ’60s / early- ’70s. Was going for that sound intentional, or did it just turn out that way?

EPR: It’s really just how it came out. Ya know, one thing that I wanted to make sure that we captured was like, the Swamp Dogg records that I love, the bass guitar is so upfront. When it comes to the low-end, it always seems to be a toss-up between the bass-heavy record or a kick drum-heavy record, and for this album I wanted the kick drum to just be felt and for the bass to take up all the low-end space. And if you listen to Swamp Dogg records it’s very similar; we just wanted to give the album that Swamp Dogg feel there. I guess the way I feel about this record is in a way it’s a singer/songwriter record, and the goal of production and mixing in general is for me to compliment the songs and the way they sound, and I think that’s sort of what we were after. As far as it being a conscious choice to make it sound a certain way, I guess that’s what I like also; records that sound like that, like what you described. Swamp was all about this too. I mean, if you listen to his records, especially back then, they were very unfussy production-wise; not a ton going on, vocals upfront, and ya know I think that’s how we wanted to treat this, and that was a big part of the mixing process was the removal of ‘stuff.’

GM: We were going to mention that as well, but sometimes people might get offended by it, nonetheless, this was sort of a stripped-down album for you, but it works and works well.

EPR: Mmm Hmm, absolutely. Thank you; thank you for that.

GM: Two of Goldmine’s go-to selections from the new album are “Hardworking People” and “Knock Knock Memories,” of which the latter was penned by Swamp Dogg. Not only that, but it appears on both of your latest studio albums simultaneously. We’re curious how that happened.

EPR: (laughs) It was a little bit of Swamp trying to be slick about things. he told me, and I still believe it, that he wrote the song with my voice in mind. He played me a bunch of his demos and that one was the most Swamp Dogg, just classic, the way the chords move, it’s a little bit of kilter in the harmony and I just loved it, I thought it was great. When we were cutting it he never said anything about his version or about the way he thought it ought to sound. Obviously it’s his song and we talked about it but it was completely from scratch, and then I heard his version on his record and it’s really different, and I think that’s cool. Ya know, I think it’s the kinda thing that like back in the day there used to be different versions songs all the time; it was just a thing that happened all the time. I had no issue with it; I love my version and I love his version. But as far as “Hard Working People,” I loved hearing that you liked that one because it’s kinda out there in left field from my normal stuff. It’s got this little soul-folk thing going on and I’m really proud of that one; it’s definitely a little different for me.

GM: We can get a little cliché with this next one: What are your personal go-to’s from the record? The most meaningful for you when you listen back to them?

EPR: Let’s see. I really love the whole record, but I think that “Getting There” is a song I’m super proud of, I love how it came together. And, I love the cover that we did…

GM: … you’re talking about the Jimmy Holiday song?…

EPR: … yeah, “How Could I Forget.” An both of us were like, “I bet we can beat that version” (laughs). We both thought we could beat it. Swamp loved it as well, and we recorded that live in the room with him playing piano and me singing and everybody else playing together. that was a really special moment for me. Then there’s “One Man’s Trash…” is a song that when I wrote I couldn’t even imagine singing that with Swamp Dogg because for me it’s something that I would have written specifically for him, and he heard the demo and he was like, “We gotta do that, we gotta do it as a duet!” and I was like, “OK! Let’s fu*kin’ do it as a duet!“

GM: Any touring support already planned for the new release? What does that look like?

EPR: We’ve got some stuff happening. Europe has always been my bread and butter, so I’m gonna go back to Europe. First in October and November of this year and then back in March of 2027. Ummm, we’ve got some plans to go to the west coast later in the spring of 2027 so I’m hoping that starts coming together, and then a few east coast dates, but yeah, Europe, quite honestly has always been where the money is at. For some reason it’s always been a little bit harder over here to find the money personally, but I’m hoping that changes especially with this new record continues to make it’s ascent .

GM: Lastly, what would you hope that anyone, whether current fans or new fans, who listens to the album takes away from it?

EPR: I mean I want to make records that people can focus on if they want to, lyrically or otherwise, but also can just kinda put on and simply enjoy, and I think that’s the kind of record this is. I like that this is a record that you can just listen to from front to back. I want people to take away that after 20 plus years of making records, that the music is something that they can enjoy whatever state they’re in. It’s probably the kind of record for people in the stage of life that I’m in, but then if there are Gen Z’ers out there that are drawn to this record, that’s great too. I just want them all to know that bottom line it’s a record that if you want to put it on just to have something cool to listen to while you’re doing whatever it is you’re doing, it’ll be good for that too.

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Getting There — Album Review

Getting There (2026, Yep Roc Records) is another example of the stalwart efforts of Reed to bring forward yet another reverent album, this time alongside a fellow producer and recording artist who has not only inspired the direction of this album, but has in many ways brought inspiration to Reed’s music since it’s inception over two decades ago. The leadership of Swamp Dogg over the course of this record is evident, and the synergy between both he and the artist is an utter and absolute show of symbiotic in-studio magic. As well, it is a breath of fresh musical air to experience Reed’s personal transparency and vulnerability as a songwriter and as the perfect conveyor of each of the song’s messages.

The album is chock-full of 13 individual selections (pretty generous for these times), of all original compositions by Reed with the exception of one original by Swamp Dogg and one 1962 cover tune that quite honestly shows the ‘Paperboy’ giving the original vocalist Jimmy Holiday a massive run for his money. The album boasts all lead vocals by the artist with only two feature performances: one of which includes the album’s producer and as well, another from rising soul and R&B singer/songwriter, Zaniah (aka, Zaniah Harris). The production factor also shines through big and bright, with an absolute period-correct homage to ultra-classic era rhythm & blues and soul — though ‘homage’ might not be a correct reference seeing as how the producer himself is one of those classic era recording artists whose early music and production handprint is set in stone within the historic lexicon of soul music.

There is a friendly blend of mid-tempos, upper mid-tempos, ballad and up-tempo goodness balanced palatably across the album’s song sequence. It seems a great deal of consideration was given to the album when choosing the songs for the final cut were being made, as monotony definitely does not exist here and you will not get fatigued by back-to-back songs that sound too close to similar. There are also varied inflections and styles of soul and R&B being represented here, adding to the album’s diversity and scope. There is a heavy presence of southern soul and rhythm & blues (particularly likened to the sonic signature of the late ’60s) being represented. “Every Once In a While;” the album’s mid-tempo intro track, as well as selections such as “Like We Used To,” “Sore Loser” and the title track “Getting There” (to mention a few), all reverberate gorgeously and familiarly with the early Tennessee and Mississippi sonic signatures of the STAX, Malaco and Hi Records sound.

Ballads are driven by selections such as Reed’s brilliant cover of “How Can I Forget,” as well as the tracks “Asking for a Friend” and “The Questions,” both the latter also representing a fantastic interpretation by the artist of country music-tinged soul. Two further stand out pieces come by way of the track “Hardworking People” which resonates heavily in the realm of classic soul-folk, and the amazing collaboration duet between Reed and Swamp Dogg, “One Man’s Trash (Is Another Man’s Treasure),” which not only resembles the personal classic era-efforts of Swamp Dogg himself, but also gives off really strong Johnnie Taylor vibes.

For the classic soul and rhythm & blues aficionados, as well as for the collectors, Getting There is available more than one way. First, the album comes via a standard black vinyl LP whose analog playback sounds appropriately exquisite, especially for this kind of music. It also includes a printed inner sleeve with full lyrics enabling you to fully absorb all of the great songwriting. For those digital die-hards, you can get everything on a pristinely pressed and sharp sounding compact disc album as well. If you still like invisible music, you are privy to a digital download of the record or streaming. Is this the artist’s best album of all? Maybe. But what we do know for sure is that it is his most authentic, dynamic, intriguing and honest musical work to date and highly recommended. —GM

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Contact TONE Scott at GoldmineMagazine@GoldmineMag.com. Please put The TONE of Soul (Eli Paperboy Reed, Getting There) in the subject line.

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Get a copy of our FALL 2026 print issue with either WAVVES or KEO on the cover in the official Goldmine store: (Click below)

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TONE Scott is a career-long American music industry professional.  As a Grammy Award nominated, platinum selling songwriter/ composer/ producer/ vocal arranger, he has worked with some of the world’s most renowned recording artists.  As a published music journalist, he has been a feature writer for many internationally accredited music publications.  Currently on staff at Goldmine magazine, he is Senior Contributing Editor with four reoccurring online columns — The TONE of Soul, Adventures of a Music Collector, Eclectic Discoveries and Jazzology — as well as a prominent feature-article writer for the magazine’s print edition, including the reoccurring article series — Modern Music Must-Haves.  He is an acknowledged multi-genre music historian, having contributed liner notes for many album releases, as well as an expert record collector with over three decades of dedicated music collecting experience.  As a content creator he hosts his own YouTube channel – TONE Scott – were he produces vlogs revolving around his music industry career and his life as a music collector.  He is also the host of Record Store Spotlight; an online show that highlights independent record stores everywhere. Follow TONE Scott on all social media, including his YouTube channel by visiting his Linktree page, HERE.

The Claypool Lennon Delirium return, with their latest excursion into the realm of fantasy and whimsy, The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy. It’s a concept album, released with an accompanying comic book (crafted by illustrator Rich Ragsdale) to tell you the story in pictures as well as sound.

The tale is set in the futuristic city of Cliptopia, where humans are increasingly threatened by encroaching technology. Here’s how one half of the team, Sean Ono Lennon, summarizes things: “The hero is Hippard O. Campus Jr., and he’s basically rebelling against his father, who is the guy who created Cliptron, the robot that’s turning everything into paperclips, and his dad wants him to work in the factory and inherit the family business. And he’s rebelling against it. He feels like his dad cares too much about machines and AI and robots, while he feels like humans are special. That humans should not be replaced by robots. That humans are not just meat machines, that we’re more than just a machine made of meat, that we have something else that makes us special. Which turns out to be love and empathy.”

A story with a moral, then. And it’s not really a spoiler to say that it comes with a happy ending. And while the theme of overreliance on technology is serious, the songs (and comic book) are also leavened with a sizeable dose of humor as well, keeping the mood upbeat and your toes a-tapping.

Lennon spoke with Goldmine about how he created the Delirium’s latest work with co-collaborator Les Claypool (of the band Primus), confessing that it’s not always so easy to play the band’s songs live, and the joys of listening to vinyl records with your friends.

GOLDMINE: You’re done so many different things musically: your solo stuff, the band Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger and all the musicians you’ve collaborated with over the years. How would you describe the music of the Claypool Lennon Delirium to people who haven’t heard it?

SEAN ONO LENNON: Well, we use this term “progadelic” because it’s kind of like a psych band, but it’s more like prog rock than straight-up psychedelic music. But all those labels are obviously kind of goofy. I mean, we’re not traditionalists by any means. I think we’re just doing our own thing. But then I share a lot of Les’ tastes, and I think we’ve developed our own style that has to do with the complementary talents and differences between Les and I. He has a certain style and I have a certain style, and we have certain skill sets that overlap and complement each other.

GM: Your last album came out in 2019. What was the spark that brought you guys together at this time: “OK, it’s time to make new music”?

SOL: I think we would have finished this album sooner, but there was just a lot going on in both of our lives. COVID happened, right? And then I became quite busy, and Les had to find a new drummer for Primus, and he’s been doing a lot of Primus touring. So there was just a lot of situational stuff that made it hard for us to finish the album. But we really had a lot of passion and wanted to do a concept record. We’d been writing it for a long time. I also think the fact that it’s a concept record, and it has an actual story from beginning to end, made it a lot harder to finish quickly; it was a lot of work to make sure that all the songs fit into a story. That added an extra layer of difficulty. But it was really fun at the same time.

GM: Are there other concept albums you’ve liked?

SOL: Oh yeah. I’m a big fan of the genre. I love The Who’s Tommy, obviously. And I love The Pretty Things’ concept record, S.F. Sorrow. Les turned me on to some of the Rush stuff — 2112. I was a little bit too young for Rush, so I missed them when I was a kid, but Les is always trying to get me into them.

GM: I like concept albums, too. My parents, when I came home from music camp one year, bought me the studio cast version of Jesus Christ Superstar, and that’s my favorite version.

SOL: Oh, my God, I love Jesus Christ Superstar! But that’s like a full-blown musical. Yeah, I love the album and the film. They’re both really great.

GM: The album comes with a comic book telling the story, though the initial idea was to do a film. How did it all come together

SOL: Basically, we wanted to do a rock opera, and we actually wrote out a story. It took us a long time to really nail down the story. And Les and I had never written a story together. It’s funny because normally when we write songs, even though we collaborate a lot, when it comes to the lyrics, the songs that he sings he tends to write the lyrics, and the songs that I sing I tend to write the lyrics, because it’s kind of easier that way. So writing a story together was a new challenge. And it took a while; it was really fun, but it was a lot of work. So we wrote the story first. And when we were writing the story, I think in our minds we were imagining it could also be an animated film or something. But when it came down to actually putting out the record, that would have been too complicated to pull off. So that’s why we asked Rich [Ragsdale] to do the comic book. But I think potentially it could still become a film at some point.

GM: With the comic book, it’s like you’ve storyboarded the film already.

SOL: Yeah. I mean, it’s ready to go, so if we could find the right interest, we could definitely do it.

GM: There are so many different musical influences on the album. When I was listening to “WAP (What a Predicament)” it made me think of The Monkees’ late 1960s work, when they got all psychedelic and weird.

SOL: Like [the album and feature film] Head.

GM: Yeah, exactly. Like Head. It reminded me of that period.

SOL: That’s cool. I’m a big fan of the “Porpoise Song” that Carole King wrote [co-written with Gerry Goffin]. I love that song. And I love the movie. It’s so weird and funny. On “What a Predicament,” I wasn’t trying to emulate anything specific; I was thinking more of T. Rex. It was one of those songs that came to me really fast; I wrote it in like an hour. It’s a real simple song. In fact, I’m really looking forward to playing that one live because it’s a lot easier to play than, for example, “Blood and Rockets” from our last record [South of Reality]. That’s a really hard song to play, whereas I think “What a Predicament” is going to be fun and simple and easy to play. I like that song a lot, and the lyrics turned out to be so prescient. I actually wrote the opening line a couple of years ago: “Like a president caught in shenanigans with the beauty queen/I’m guessing they may not be so innocent as they’d have us believe.” And that was before the whole [Jeffrey] Epstein thing happened that I wrote that. So it’s weird; it turned out to be kind of prescient.

GM: That’s always interesting when that happens.

SOL: Well, yeah, it was odd, actually.

GM: There’s a strong element of absurdity in both the songs and the comic book and the video that’s out [for “The Golden Egg of Empathy”]. I guess that reflects your own senses of humor.

SOL: Yeah. I would say that the Delirium is a band that has a lot of whimsy. And we’re just having fun, so we don’t take it too seriously. I think Les and I, we like to make each other laugh. That leads a lot of our creative decisions. For example, Les came up with the idea, “What if we have a character that’s called a ‘Parrot-Ox’ that’s half parrot, half ox?” And I was just like, “That’s hilarious. We should name the whole record that.” Because it was just such a cool idea, and so funny as well. I think one of the reasons I really enjoy this band is because it gives me permission to have fun and joke around a little more than usual. So that’s nice.

GM: The underlying theme of the album is about the dangers of the virtual world. I wonder how you yourself navigate that because I see you on the virtual world all the time. Have you tried to maintain that balance to where those things aren’t taking over and being too dominant?

SOL: Well, I don’t know that I have. I mean, I feel like we’re all addicted to our phones, and we’re struggling with that addiction. I’ve even considered getting a minimalist phone, so it’s just texting and calling or just email and texting. I was considering doing that because it definitely does feel like it drains a lot of your time. And because I use it for work, like most people, it’s hard to separate work and just like random scrolling. So yeah, I do struggle with it, and I feel like we’re all struggling. I feel like it’s one of the most important issues in our society. What are we going to do about these phones that addict us to all these pointless and brain-rotting things? It’s a problem. And I think it’s affecting our concentration and our cognition. It can’t be good.

GM: You should read Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. It looks at how continual exposure toonline stuff has been altering the way our brains function.

SOL: I can feel it. I can’t remember phone numbers anymore.

GM: Yeah, you don’t need to remember them; they’re all on your phone!

SOL: It’s really bad because I used to be very, very good at memorizing numbers, and I can’t remember my girlfriend’s phone number anymore. It’s really disturbing. I mean, we’re outsourcing our brains. It’s interesting because it is an age-old question. I know that Socrates thought that writing things down was bad for your memory. And I’m sure he’s right. I’m sure Homer and Socrates could remember thousands of words. And when Socrates saw Plato writing everything down, he was probably thinking, “Be careful, man. If you write everything down, then your brain’s going to get weaker.” And I’m sure it did in a way. We basically outsource all of this cognitive function to our phones and our machines, and it’s making us dumber.

GM: The Shallows points out how they’ve found that you retain information more if you read it from something physical, like a book or a document, than if you read something on a computer. When you read something on a computer, you’re more prone to skim.

SOL: That’s 100 percent true. I have read studies like that, that show that you retain information better from a physical book. And I think it’s also that your brain actually acknowledges a physical object in a different way than it does a screen, which is virtual, and it’s just kind of changing lights on a screen. I think when you’re interacting with the three-dimensional object that you’re turning the pages on, it makes your brain kind of pay attention more.

I noticed that because I read books on my phone a lot. And it’s almost like if I really care about what I’m reading, I’ll get a physical book and read it. But if it’s something that I just want to read quickly, I’ll do it on my phone or on the computer. And I feel myself forgetting it as I read it for sure. I mean, if you stare at a screen for hours, I personally can feel myself kind of zombifying. I feel like I’m mentally kind of drained, whereas when I read books, I don’t feel that way. I feel mentally sharper after I read a book.

GM: I had the feeling, after listening to the whole album a couple of times, and reading the comic book, that this is meant to be a wake-up call. It’s not telling people, “This is what we should do.” It’s more telling people, “Hey, you should think about this.”

SOL: Yeah. I mean, I think something that everyone’s thinking about right now is this next wave of technology. Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, but this next wave is being framed as something that could replace humans or make humans obsolete. And I feel like there’s something very dark about that. So yeah, it seemed like a good subject for a rock opera.

GM: I can see why the band is called Delirium because there’s this edgy craziness to the music. And I’ve never seen you live. I’ve thought, how do you perform all this stuff live? Because it seems like there’s so much going on in the songs.

SOL: Honestly, some of the songs are really hard to play live, and I have to just practice a lot. In terms of changing sounds between sections and playing certain melody lines on my guitar while I’m singing a different melody with my voice, it can get really difficult. But that’s actually really good for your brain. So it hopefully will keep me young!

GM: The album’s available on vinyl as well as CD. Because this is Goldmine, a record-collecting magazine, I have to ask: What is it that you like about vinyl?

SOL: Well, it’s kind of like what we were talking about in terms of reading a physical book versus reading it on your phone. I think when you listen to music on Spotify, it’s a more frivolous activity, and you’re not interacting with the physical object. So there’s no place for you to actually locate the music in 3D space. I think when you have a physical record, you have a physical object; that is the music that you can hold on to and interact with and put on your shelf and take it off your shelf and listen to it. It feels like the tactility of it is more meaningful. And obviously the sound of a record is much better as well. I think for young people who grew up without vinyl, for the most part, I think every year, they’re getting more and more into it because I think there’s just something really nice about it. If you care about an album, if it’s something that you really like, having it on vinyl — there’s nothing you can compare to that. It’s like a hand-me-down you can give to your kids in 20 years. You can’t do that with your Spotify playlist. Or you can, but who’s going to care?

GM: Do you have a preferred format? I tend to go for CD because it’s easier. But I noticed after listening to CDs for a while and then putting on some vinyl, things like the crackles were really exciting. Whereas that used seen as a flaw; it’s not a pristine record. But now it just was kind of thrilling — Oh, listen to the surface noise!

SOL: It is nice. It’s soothing. It actually makes my ears feel better when I listen to vinyl. I feel like it’s less hard on my ears than MP3s, you know? And when my friends come over and we put on records and listen to music together, it feels like more of a ritual, you know? There’s something nice about it, sitting around a stereo and having some tea and listening to vinyl. It feels like a nice experience, it feels more like a nice ceremony that you can enjoy with a group of friends.

GM: I’m curious: In your bio for this record, it mentioned a collaboration you did with Laurie Anderson and John Zorn. What was that like?

SOL: I love Laurie so much, and I love John so much. John has been so kind to me over the years. He let me put out a record on his label Tzadik, and I’m really proud of it; it’s called Asterisms. And around the time that I was doing that, someone asked me to play some shows with him and Laurie. They were improv shows, and they were really fun. I really enjoyed playing with them. Laurie Anderson has been a friend of the family my whole life. She’s definitely in the same kind of universe as my mom in terms of performance art and conceptual music. And Zorn has always been a big supporter of my mom as well. So they’re both people that I’ve grown up with in the city. And it’s just an honor to play with them.

GM: Laurie has that kind of quirky sensibility as your mother, too.

SOL: She really has an amazing sense of humor, but also an incredible soulful gravitas. And her art and music are very profound, I think. Yeah, she’s one of the greats. I love her so much. Did you see the film she made about her dog? The documentary? [Heart of a Dog]

GM: Yeah.

SOL: It’s so beautiful, I cried. It was so sweet. One of the things that makes New York cool is that people like John Zorn and Laurie Anderson and my mom were all hanging out when I was growing up. It’s still a cool city in that way.

GM: I haven’t been there since your mother’s exhibit at MoMA [Museum of Modern Art] in 2015. SOL: Yeah, well, it’s changed a lot, but I think it goes up and down, New York, and I think it’s coming back.

Iron Maiden, My Chemical Romance, Limp Bizkit and Tool headlined the festival’s four nights, leading a massive lineup that also included Alice Cooper, Pantera, Megadeth, Anthrax, Danzig, Lit, GWAR and more.

Presented by Danny Wimmer Presents, the 2026 edition marked the most expansive lineup in Louder Than Life history.

Check out photos from the festival below:

Eric Clapton’s 1976 album, No Reason to Cry, recorded with members of The Band, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this season. Clapton sang lead on all of the songs except “Innocent Times,” which was sung by Marcy Levy, now known as Marcella Detroit, and she shared lead vocals with Clapton on the flip side “Hungry,” which she co-wrote. Now Detroit has joined singer-songwriter Jann Klose on the song “Hurting Nobody” from his new concept album The Future Trap. Goldmine spoke with Detroit about the ‘70s flip side, with both artists regarding “Hurting Nobody,” and additional songs from Klose’s new record.

GOLDMINE: Welcome to Goldmine, Marcella. Congratulations and thank you for all the music over the years. My wife Donna loves your and Yvonne Elliman’s vocal contributions on Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight” from his 1977 album Slowhand. Let’s go back to the prior year, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of his No Reason to Cry album, featuring a pair of singles, “Hello Old Friend” and “Carnival,” with “Hungry” on the flip side, which you co-wrote with the band’s keyboardist Dick Sims, and sang lead on with Eric.

MARCELLA DETROIT: Thank you for having me. Dick Sims was from Tulsa, and I met him when I joined Bob Seger’s band back in ‘72. Bob hired my band named Julia, after we opened for David Bowie. That is how Bob’s manager discovered us and asked us to audition for Bob’s band. For around four months Bob kept the whole band but then decided to fire some members. He got these hot shot musicians from Oklahoma, including Dick, and they were incredible. Dick and I used to write songs together, and “Hungry” was one of them. We presented it to Eric when we were both in his band, after our time working with Bob Seger. Eric’s performance sounds like a song that could have been on his Derek & the Dominos album, like “Why Does Love Got to be So Sad?”

Eric Clapton

Fabulous Flip Side: Hungry

A side: Carnival

Debut: January 1977 from the 1976 album No Reason to Cry

RSO RS-868

“Dick (Sims) and I used to write songs together, and “Hungry” was one of them. We presented it to Eric (Clapton) when we were both in his band, after our time working with Bob Seger. Eric’s performance sounds like a song that could have been on his Derek & the Dominos album, like “Why Does Love Got to be So Sad?” – Marcella Detroit (Marcy Levy)

GM: Your song “Hurting Nobody,” with Jann, has this haunting sound that I first heard when you were in Shakespears Sister with Siobhan Fahey from Bananarama, with your 1992 Top 5 gold single “Stay.” How did you and Jann meet?

MD: We met at The NAMM Show, the annual music convention in Anaheim, a few years ago. We were introduced by Lauri Reimer, who is a singer and promoter. We stayed in touch and talked about writing some music together, which we did via Zoom.

JANN KLOSE: I was home in New York and Marcella was in Los Angeles. My idea was to use the sound of a barrel organ on the song, which you crank, and it has a rotating cylinder and built-in pipes. This instrument was used by street performers in Europe a century ago. My producer, Marcus Dembinski, found a sample of a barrel organ, which we used, and it fit perfectly.

GM: Let’s talk about another collaborator who I have interviewed previously, Rachel Flowers. She joins you on the powerful song “The Lost Kingdom,” that you co-wrote with Annie Haslam of Renaissance, who I have also interviewed.

JK: I have known Annie for a long time. We collaborated before and have a couple of recordings together. I had a melody sitting around without lyrics which I shared with Annie. She drew from a painting that she had done to inspire the lyrics. The idea is that we are going to an ideal world which is the lost kingdom, also the name of the painting, where unity exists and love is not challenged. I think art and music are here to rescue us from everything else which is maddening. Marcella and I agree completely on that. When I asked Annie to sing it, she reminded me that she is pretty much retired from singing and mentioned Rachel Flowers to me. Then another friend of mine, Ellie Schwartz Bernstein, who worked in publicity here in New York City, also mentioned Rachel, so I checked her out. I was amazed by her brilliance. As you know, she is blind, sings, and plays piano, which she does on the track. It is a gorgeous performance.

GM: There are a couple of songs on the album which are back-to-back, yet on YouTube, they are shown as separate tracks. One of the pairs is “Love is a Verb”/“Conjugation” which is jazzy with a great trumpet, a “Shaft”-like ending, and a touch of disco.

JK: “Love is a Verb” was written with the South African artist DJ Cosher, who I have collaborated with on a dance version of this song and had a hit there a couple of years ago. When I played this song in Germany with my band, the audience loved it. This recording gives it another life. The trumpet you hear is from Alphonso Horne, formerly of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show Band, and he just kills it. I have my German drummer and American bassist on it too. This song crosses three continents. The album is a concept album where the main character goes through life repeating the same mistakes. He is a flawed human who doesn’t learn lessons and keeps falling into the same traps. On “Love is a Verb,” the character is on a love high and as “Conjugation” follows, he falls off of that high.

“The album is a concept album where the main character goes through life repeating the same mistakes. He is a flawed human who doesn’t learn lessons and keeps falling into the same traps.” – Jann Klose

GM: You spoke about the live performance with your band, which sounds exciting. My daughter Brianna and I saw Bruno Mars in the summer of 2013 on his Moonshine Jungle Tour, before it was announced that he would be performing on the Super Bowl the following February, bringing the same level of excitement in New Jersey that we witnessed here in Florida. I am reminded of Bruno’s pop sound, like “Marry You,” when I listen to your catchy song “When I’m With You.”

JK: I saw Bruno live at the Grammys in 2011 when I had a song nomination. I agree that he is a great performer. I wrote this song with Everett Bradley, who is currently a percussionist and background singer in Bon Jovi. Everett had the idea for the beat. When I write with Marcella, she has song titles fully formed where Everett came to me with a beat which was fully formed, so I have co-writers who approach the process very differently, which keeps things fresh. Everett had the beat and I had the lyrical concept of being with a partner who fortunately sees you for who you are completely without having to pretend to be someone you are not.

GM: Speaking about a beat, “How Do I Get What I Need” has incredible drums, along with brass and background vocals.

JK: Everett was the co-writer on this song too, which is about obsession and addiction, which seems to be everywhere in a time where it seems that nothing is ever enough. It is an aggressive rock song.

GM: Talking about addiction, the pair of “The Future Trap”/“Break the Cycle” reminded me of my time in Virginia as a board member of a shelter for abused women and their children, where the goal was always to just break the cycle of abuse. This is a strong and important ending.

JK: Once again, it is one piece of music that we split into two for the single “The Future Trap” with “Break the Cycle” being the tag, which I wrote with Marcus. I suggested, “When ‘The Future Trap’ ends, let’s keep going musically.” I asked him what he would do. It helps to conclude the tone of the album, which begins with the character wondering how he will break the cycle of obsession and addiction and be OK with what he has in life. This ending acknowledges that this is his plight and he must finally break the cycle. We had complete artistic freedom on this album and are so pleased that you are enjoying it. Thank you.

MD: Thank you also for highlighting my work old and new.

Related links:

jannklose.com

marcelladetroit.com

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Goldmine Contributing Editor Warren Kurtz, a long-time music journalist and author, can be contacted at fabulousflipsides.com