Freedom Records released Michael Hall's The Song He Was Listening to When He Died
on October 17, 2006. The album, Hall's eighth, was produced by
“Scrappy” Jud Newcomb and George Reiff, and is consciously
different from other albums Hall has done in the past. Hall,
Newcomb, and Reiff--friends who have known each other for two
decades--set out to break down and then rebuild a dozen songs Hall
had written over the previous few years, sometimes beginning with
old analog drum machines, other times with a Wurlitzer piano or an
acoustic guitar. Then they layered sounds and rhythms, by
themselves (Newcomb has been guitarist for Loose Diamonds, Toni
Price, the Resentments, and Beaver Nelson; Reiff has played bass
with Joe “King” Carrasco, Charlie Sexton, and Chris Robinson)
and with people like drummer Joey Shuffield from the Wild Seeds
(and Fastball), singer Julie Lowry, and other local musicians, who
played vibes, trumpet, and various percussion things. The result
is a strange pop record, part bitter and part sweet, from the
spare acoustic beauty of “Out Where the Highways Roll,” to the
buzzsaw despair of “Captain Captain” and the bizarre
Vietnamese disco of “I Had a Girl in Dien Bien Phu.” There's
also plenty of pure pop longing, as only a true rock 'n roll
veteran can write and sing, in songs like “Summer” and “The
Song He Was Listening to When He Died.”
The moment of death
has never sounded more alive.
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