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Welcome to DeadsvilleRalph Covert returns to his singer-songwriter roots with a stirringly intimate collection of post- pop acoustic gems. The lyrics and melodies evoke comparisons to artists like Elliott Smith and Paul McCartney, arranged with sparse yet sparkling production in the vein of Beck and fellow Chicagoans Wilco. The album is a reflective and tuneful meditation on life. As the Los Angeles Times puts it, “Covert blends smart lyrics with instrumental arrangements that appeal to music lovers of all ages.”
The Welcome to Deadsville album provides a soulful soundtrack for adult living. “People use phrases like, ‘I was in a dark place,’ or ‘...a bad place,’” Covert explains, “and the idea struck me – what if it was a real place? Even better, a fancy tourist destination, like a resort?” The idea of Deadsville opened the window into looking at life’s more serious issues from a satirical yet playful perspective. “It seems to me our society does a poor job of addressing more challenging emotional experiences,” Covert adds. “If it’s not a ‘Facebook feeling,’ we’re taught to look the other way and repress our emotions in many ways. Life contains a much richer palette of experiences than that, and I wanted to make an album that explored anger, grief, fear, and depression as well as happiness, love, and joy. The fictional resort of Deadsville is an effort to help open that conversation.” |
The songs |
The songs on the album deliver on this idea while rewarding the listener with their arrangements and melodies. The lush production of the title track contrasts intriguingly with its dystopian lyric, describing the hollowness and hopelessness of Deadsville in glowing detail. You’ll yearn to visit the tawdry resort even as its darker side is revealed. The ballad “You Make Me Happy” captures the idea of finding happiness in the life lived between getting the kids to school and doing the laundry, and the song “Amen, Alex Chilton is Sleeping” looks at the great rock n roll myth, finding both beauty and tragedy in its empty promises. The album closes with the aching “Fly Little Bird,” a song Covert wrote for his mother when she was on her deathbed; far from being a downer, it provides a breath of hope and peace to end the listening experience.
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The videos |
In addition to the album, available both on CD and streaming, we will be releasing lyric videos and live performance videos of all the songs off of Welcome to Deadsville. In addition, we will be releasing videos of the live performance of album from the release show.
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