AMERICAN SONGWRITER PREMIERES “SAGINAW PAPER MILL” FEATURING BEN KWELLER
Ronnie Fauss returns with his third album Last Of The True on October 27, 2017 via New West’s imprint, Normaltown Records. The 13-track set is the strongest, widest-reaching album of Fauss’ career, with ten new original songs and three updated takes on covers that include tunes popularized by Uncle Tupelo (“New Madrid”) and Okkervil River (“The Velocity Of Saul At The Time Of His Conversion”), as well as a piano-fueled version of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice (It’s All Right).” The Dallas, TX-native teamed up with indie-folk rocker Ben Kweller for the album’s first single “Saginaw Paper Mill,” which released on Friday. American Songwriter premiered the Black Balloon-directed video for the new track calling it “a crunchy, devil-may-care rocker with honky-tonk piano and some hazy, road-trip ready visuals to boot.” Listen HERE. Fauss produced Last Of The True himself, working alongside engineer and former Centro-Matic drummer Matt Pence (Jason Isbell, Sarah Jaffe, Nikki Lane), and recording mostly at Pence’s Echo Lab Studio with members of Jason Isbell, Justin Townes Earle, Rodney Crowell, and Emmylou Harris’ touring bands. “I didn’t want to leave anything on the table when I was recording this album,” Fauss comments, “I wanted to empty my notebook.” A genuine fan of the Americana catalog, he looked to his own record collection for inspiration and nods to those influences throughout Last Of The True. The final product is something quite rare: a modern-day Americana gem, as well as a celebration of the older sounds that influenced the genre. Last Of The True will release digitally and on compact disc, and is available for pre-order now HERE. Fauss has initially announced a hometown show at Dallas’ Sundown at Granada on October 7 with more tour dates to come.
Last Of The True follows Fauss’ 2014 LP Built To Break, which included a collaboration with Old 97’s Rhett Miller and gained praise from CMT, American Songwriter, The Boot, NoDepression, and more, as well as his acclaimed Normaltown Records debut I Am The Man You Know I’m Not (2012) that the New York Times deemed “memorable” and “clever.” Of the direction and inspiration behind his new songs, Fauss elaborates, “I stretched myself in new ways. I sat down and played piano on a Bob Dylan cover. I wrote a polka song and a back-porch bluegrass number. I explored the Laurel Canyon sound, and I tried to shine a light on some of the artists who’ve influenced me, too. I cast a wider net this time because I wanted to capture more sounds I like.” The result is an album that fires twin barrels of Texas twang and Nashville nuance. There are no borders here. No rules or restrictions. Instead, Fauss has made a cross-country Americana record for bars, listening rooms, pool halls, and car stereos. From the dobro arpeggios and bluegrass-worthy stomp of “No One To Blame But Yourself” to the guitar-based heartland rock of “Twenty Two Years,” Last Of The True is everything its title promises: a blast of something real and authentic, delivered right when we need it most.
LAST OF THE TRUE TRACK LISTING:
1. Big Leagues
2. Twenty-Two Years
3. New Madrid
4. Being Alone
5. I Think We’re Going To Be Okay
6. Saginaw Paper Mill (featuring Ben Kweller)
7. There Is An Irrigation Problem In Gilroy
8. Big Umbrella
9. It’s A Choice
10. The Velocity Of Saul At The Time Of His Conversion
11. Bright Lights Of L.A.
12. No One To Blame But Yourself
13. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right