We really liked ‘Savages’ when it came into the shop on CD, then we received an email from one of our customers asking why we didn’t try to put it out on vinyl. It was a good point. Several emails later and we were on the road to releasing it. It’s taken a few months to straighten everything out but things are now falling into place and we hope to have the LP out by the end of March.

If you haven’t heard The Webb Sisters before, check out the video below:

What can I say about this album? It’s simply one of my favourite albums. I’d take it to a desert island.

We’ve released the last two Richmond Fontaine albums on LP and it’s been amazing to work with one of my favourite bands on these. When the chance to put out Post To Wire arose, I grabbed it with both hands. When singer Willy Vlautin told me that he had two songs that were recorded in the album sessions that never made it but needed a home, I was overjoyed. – Matt Jarrett, Diverse Records.

Those two songs are included on a 7″ with the album and can also be downloaded using the code provided. Here’s what Willy said about the tracks:

Don’t Go Back There

Don’t Go Back There has always been one of my favorite Richmond Fontaine songs. To be honest I can’t remember exactly why it didn’t make Post to Wire, but it was recorded in the same sessions. We were going for a big country soul feel. Paul’s intro pedal steel line still kills me, and there’s a desperate urgency to the lyrics I’ve always liked. It’s a song we always come back to and I’m happier than hell it’s finally found a home.

The Alibi

In the old days we used to play a couple of pedal steel instrumentals at every gig. One was called Hector’s Hideaway – Hector being the patron saint of Richmond Fontaine. The other was The Alibi. The Alibi is an old school Tiki bar in our home town of Portland. During that time (2003) Paul and I were spending a lot of time there. It has an amazing neon sign outside, and inside it’s so dark you need a flashlight to get around. I brought the basic melody to practice and the band put it in a flashy suit. This was also recorded during the same sessions, but in the end The Alibi felt like RF’s old country rave up side, and not like the stuff that made Post to Wire.

Post To Wire is due to me released at the end of February.

Danny & The Champs – ‘Hearts & Arrows’: Nearly done. Test pressing approved, artwork sent off, the ‘go’ button has been pressed. Released 14th Feb.

Richmond Fontaine – ‘Post To Wire’: Artwork just finished. Test Pressing approved. Pretty much ready to sign off. Should be out mid-February.

The Webb Sisters – ‘Savages’: Just getting started. Sourcing sound files and artwork but everything going relatively smoothly so far so hopefully out mid-March.

Cowboy Junkies – ‘The Wilderness’: Expecting sound files any day and artwork is being done as I type. Hoping to be on time for an end of March release to coincide with the CD.

An afternoon and early evening of vinyl and hi-fi topped off with a live set from Danny George Wilson of Danny & The Champions Of The World.

Sonata will be bringing turntables and hi-fi systems along for you to play records and Rega will be setting up their Reference system. There will be no better place to hear your favourite LP! The Chord Company will be along for the ride, selling their wares and Diverse Vinyl will have a pop up shop selling the best in new and audiophile vinyl. All this kicks off at 2pm.

At 5pm we’ll have a playback of Danny’s new LP ‘Hearts & Arrows which is released on vinyl through Diverse Records on 14th February. Danny will take to the stage at 7pm to play some songs from that very album.

The upstairs room we’ll be using has a bar so we can all relax with a social pint or two which listening to quality music. They serve food downstairs too if you get peckish.

If you’re a Facebook-y person, feel free to go HERE and register your attendance.

“Savages sees The Webb Sisters weld together a delightful mixture of folk and pop to create a bewitching album full of pretty harmonies, infectious melodies and evocative vocal hooks. Right from the opening Baroque Thoughts, Charley and Hattie weave a magical spell, their voices blend effortlessly over a backing of plucked acoustic guitar and harp. From there we’re taken on a glorious journey of contagious pop tinged folky numbers and the occasional upbeat rocker.” – Rhythm & Booze

Born into a family of musicians in Kent, England, Charley and Hattie are The Webb Sisters…..

Their singing and playing (harp, guitar, mandolin and more) draw from the folk and pop traditions of Britain and the United States. The Webb Sisters have recorded two albums, building a following in the UK and achieving album and record of the week on iTunes and BBC Radio Two.

The Webb Sisters were chosen to join Leonard Cohen’s live band on his first tour in fifteen years. 247 shows were played around the world between 2008 and 2010. Two DVD and audio albums have been released documenting the musical performances of the tour, ‘Live in London’ and ‘Songs from the Road’. On the DVD ‘Live In London’, Charley and Hattie are featured on the song ‘If It Be Your Will’.

“No review of Savages would be complete without a mention of jaw dropping live version of Leonard Cohen’s If It Be Your Will, that opens with the great man himself providing a spoken word introduction before the Webb Sisters take over with a simply beautiful and serene vocal performance that just has to be heard to be believed. An already gorgeous song enhanced by a spine tingling vocal performance that almost brought this reviewer to his knees.” – Rhythm & Booze

Baroque Thoughts – The first idea for this song came backstage at the Poetry Olympics at a Victorian theatre in London. We recorded this live with Jen Condos on bass and Jay Bellerose on drums at Conway studios in Los Angeles. The acoustics of Jay’s eclectic drum set up reverberated around the high ceilings. Peter (Asher) stood in the middle of the room with earphones on and conducted with vigor. (H) I particularly love Jay’s muffled drum. It sounds medieval to me. (C)

Calling This A Life – We wanted it to be about our lives, normal lives, normal things that feel enormous sometimes. (C) We are not too keen on loud electric guitars on our recordings, but felt CTAL needed an electric. Something spacious, dreamlike and of the night. Dean Parks came over and played the electric for this song. (H)

Words That Mobilise – Written in Belfast, recorded in Burbank. Charley and I would jam in our hotel rooms while on tour with Leonard Cohen and this song came out of one of those afternoons disturbing the neighbours. . . . The strings were added subsequently and Stevie Blacke wrote the arrangement. Stevie plays all the parts himself instrument by instrument. Peter and Jeff Ross added syncopated flutes on the choruses and a flock of flutes on the middle eight. (H) The song is about the power of one’s own voice, how a single word can mean a thousand voices if only you can speak it. It’s about persecution, being taken advantage of; letting it happen or saying no. It’s about courage. (C)

Savages – We had just learned how to use a tiny digital keyboard that morning. We found a distorted harpsichord-esque sound on it and the song was born from that. (C) I hope this song reflects what happens when one is injured by an outside force. The rebound reaction can be just as violent. That battle just ricochets back and forth until someone lets it be. (H)

Dark Sky – This song came from a dark place. A horrible time that just wouldn’t shift. It felt like occurrences had left an indelible imprint. Waiting inline at security at the airport the melody started coming and the lyrics almost simultaneously. (C) Charley had recorded the sketches for this song on garage band. We wrote the middle eight lyrics as we were recording it. Both of us felt we wanted it to stay a cappela. (H)

Burn – We both love playing this kind of music and had written the song as a tongue-in-cheek fuck you before there was even a realisation of a relationship falling apart. (C) This song had it’s first outing on a gig we played at the Borderline in London. Melvin Duffy played a mean pedal steel on this tune that night and one afternoon in north London he put those parts down for the studio recording. (H)

Amelie’s Smile – At this time, I was living in a top flat in a house in Greenwich and Charley lived around the corner. One day when Charley was round at mine, we had sketched down the beginnings of this song. When I was eleven or so I went on a French exchange with a girl name Amelie. There was something that had resonated within me at that time that was in my mind when we were writing this. There is an Amelie significant in Charley’s life, so we both had our inner voyages with this song. (H)

If It Be Your Will – Recorded at the O2 in London in July 2008. This was two months into the tour with LC, so for me it represents an early chapter of my relationship with this beautiful song and Leonard’s momentous lyric. It has been a joy to play this song with Neil Larsen – he plays the Hammond B3 organ with us here. (H)

In Your Father’s Eyes – We wrote this song whilst living on 4th and Rose in Venice Beach, LA. It was coming to the end of our time working with Universal and there was a feeling of change around us. (H) It’s Leland Sklar on bass and Russ Kunkel on drums, a Peter Asher classic. (C)

Blue and You – This was a hinge in my life because I was on tour and heartbroken. We wrote this at The Driskill Hotel in Austin Texas, it came in an hour. (H) This was another song that came to the table later when we were fitting time in the studio between live gigs with Leonard. We found a studio in the valley not far from the rehearsal studios and worked with a great engineer called Preston who helped us do whatever we were feeling musically at any time of day or night. This harp is a Dusty strings harp and that’s a grand piano that was in a kit cupboard at the back of the live room. We fit the piano part like a reverse jigsaw around the harp which is the center point of the song. (C)

1000 Stars – The first sketches for 1000 Stars were originally quite piano led. We wrote this song with Chris Braide in Wandsworth, London. When recording this, Jay Bellerose shaped the percussive live feel and Jen brought a ‘McCartney bounce’ to the bass part. (H) We wrote this soon after our last album, Daylight Crossing, was first released in the UK. When we were recording it live with Jen and Jay they both kicked so much of their energy into it. (C)

The Goodnight Song – We wrote this on a dark night in LA for another album and it came from a different head space. We wrote it entirely together and spontaneously in about two hours. At the time it had no guitar just keys. Jay rigged up all sorts of percussion and became a one man multi instrument when he played rhythm with us. It was in no way a traditional drum kit. (C)

Yours Truly – We were both going through dealing with the disintegration of independently important relationships at the time we wrote this and came running at the song raw. When we recorded it the wounds hadn’t healed (for me at least). That’s Roscoe Beck on stunning delicately detailed fiery upright bass. (C) This was the final track to be recorded for the album. We recorded our vocals through a pair of tights because at that time we didn’t have what we call a ‘spital guard’! Roscoe played upright bass on this track, recorded at Nathaniel Kunkel’s studio in the heat of the Valley during the LA rehearsals for the final LC tour. Peter, Charley and I particularly love the walk down part Roscoe plays that we call his ‘Bach’ moment. (H)

The Webb Sisters are beguiling, dynamic performers with hugely expressive voices and plangent harmonies, they are highly skilled multi-instrumentalists and songwriters of originality and intelligence. Ingénues yet thinkers, the sisters’ youthful energy and musical training combine in adventurous, lyrical and emotionally enthralling performances.

Charley and Hattie’s singing and playing (harp, guitar, mandolin, piano, drums) draw from the folk and pop traditions of Britain and the United States. The Webb Sisters have recorded three albums, building a following on their travels, achieving album, single and record of the week on iTunes and BBC Radio Two. Charley and Hattie have performed twice for Princess Anne and once for Queen Elizabeth.

The new album ‘SAVAGES’ was produced by multiple Grammy Award winning producer Peter Asher. ‘Baroque Thoughts’ (featured on ‘Savages’) won the International Music Award for ‘best Adult Contemporary Song’.

The Webb Sisters were chosen to join Leonard Cohen’s live band on his first tour in fifteen years. 247 shows were played around the world between 2008 and 2010. Two DVD and audio albums have been released documenting the musical performances of the tour, ‘Live in London’ and ‘Songs from the Road’. On the DVD ‘Live In London’, Charley and Hattie are featured on the song ‘If It Be Your Will’.

Charley and Hattie received an invitation to sing on Sting’s album ‘If On a Winter’s Night…’ and on Natalie Maines’ (of The Dixie Chicks) version of ‘God Only Knows’, which was featured on the series finale of HBO’s ‘Big Love’. The Webb Sisters have toured with Jamie Cullum, Rufus Wainwright, Jason Mraz, James Morrison, Kubb, Katie Melua, Leya and Joe Echo.

The Webb Sisters represented the United Kingdom at America’s 400th Anniversary celebrations, contributed songs to several major TV shows (such as “Cane” on CBS), and recorded a pro-peace song ‘Fortune of Soldiers’ for a Judy Collins tribute album ‘Born To The Breed’ alongside Dolly Parton and Chrissie Hynde.

For those who are wondering, it’s pressed at Pallas in Germany.

The 4th and last instalment of The Nomad Series is titled ‘The Wilderness’ 18 months ago when the project began, Michael Timmins said:

“This will be an album of new songs. Some of these songs (Angel In The Wilderness, Fairytale, The Confession of Georgie E, etc) we have been playing live for the past year or so and they are bound to find their way on to this volume. There is also a whole set of new songs (and more that are yet to be written) that we will be unveiling on stage over the coming year. We’re not quite sure how these will form themselves into a cohesive album, but these things always work themselves out.”

More recently he’s commented that the quasi-title track, ‘Angels In The Wilderness’ owes a huge debt to the Marilynne Robinson novel “Gilead” (as do many of the songs on “The Wilderness”).

“I have a habit of copying inspiring passages or lines in my notebook when I am reading. I often refer to these notes when I’m doing my own writing or when I’m stuck and looking for a direction. I think I could have copied half of this novel into my notebook. The novel takes the form of a letter written by an elderly, dying pastor to his seven year old son. It is a dense read and the type of book that you only want to undertake when you know you have a good stretch of time to devote to sitting, reading and thinking (such a luxury these days, eh?). Here is a sampling from the book…mull on these thoughts as you stand in line at Target, waiting to return Uncle Ernie’s holiday offerings…”A father must finally give his child up to the wilderness – trust that there will be angels in that wilderness.” …and as you inch closer to the cashier…”We fly forgotten as a dream, leaving the forgetful world behind us to trample and mar and misplace everything we have ever cared for. That is just the way of it, and it is remarkable.”

There’ll be more news very shortly on the Danny & The Champions Of The World release plus a little launch party down in London and more details about the long overdue vinyl release of Richmond Fontaine’s ‘Post To Wire’.

In the meantime though, have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!