It’s my pleasure to finally announce the release of “The Universal Fire” on Fluff and Gravy Records, and the release of the title track as a single anywhere music is undervalued. “The Universal Fire” is a sort of almanac, the winter count of a season of grief. Its context is the illness and death of Billy Conway – my best friend and our drummer and brother for a decade on the road – and the album sets that loss against the 2008 fire at the Universal Studios lot in Los Angeles that destroyed the masters of certain bedrock recordings of American music, to get after ideas about mortality, legacy, memory,
Sonically it’s a rock’n’roll record, in line with albums like Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits, or Tonight’s the Night by Neil Young. It covers most of what I know how to play, rock’n’roll and fingerstyle ballad, country lament and greasy blues shuffle, and the band is outrageous. They play with so much heart, these dear friends of mine.
Recorded at Wavelab in Tucson, Arizona, and produced by Bon Iver’s Mike Lewis (who also played saxophone and piano), the album features my long-time band with Eric Heywood on steel, Jeremy Moses Curtis on bass, and Erik Koskinen on electric guitar, joined by the great John Convertino of Calexico on drums. Kris Delmhorst Pieta Brown and Barbara Jean Meyers all sang backing vocals, and Tucson’s Sergio Mendoza played some beautiful ranchera-style accordion. The cover image was created by the incomparable Brandise Danesewich and the layout done by Jamie Breiwick .
If you want to help, please order the album right damn now, share the single with anyone you think might like it, and then go pre-save the album wherever you stream music.
Then, make your plans to come find us this fall. We’ll be on the road across the country with the full band Sep-Dec, with Europe and other regions at home on deck for 2025.
The Fat Angel Sings 