Brandi Shearer's 'Close To Dark'

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On August 28, Amoeba Records will release Brandi Shearer's Close to Dark, the inaugural album for this new label from the famed west coast record store of the same name. Imbued with Shearer's smoky voice and classic, blues-inflected songwriting, Close to Dark is by turns languid and lively, an excursion into dreamy worlds simmering with understated sexuality. The restrained arrangements and deft production by Larry Klein (Madeleine Peyroux, Joni Mitchell) add a delicious tension to the songs and compliment perfectly Shearer's less-is-more vocal style.

"Lullabies" opens the album with a ghostly piano figure that suggests the bittersweet emotions of nostalgia and regret. Shearer's aching world-weariness gives way to the insistent guitars and soaring vocals of "Yes, Yes, Yes". The album's most confessional number, it movingly describes the fear and uncertainty of making plans in a radically changing world. "Congratulations" is a slow moving country waltz whose vintage organ and clanging guitars suggest the tolling bells of a lonely, backwoods church. The sensual, fatalistic lyric of the multi-layered "Heaven" becomes the backdrop for a world-class rocker that pushes to a dramatic conclusion. "I've Had Enough" features Shearer bidding a no-nonsense adieu to a persistent lover. Other stand out tracks include, "My Boy's Coming Home" a country pop confection that shows Shearer in a playfully seductive mode, "Get Your Things" with its heartbreakingly stark lyrics and production, and a wonderfully addictive cover of "Oh, Singer", first released by Jeannie C. Riley in 1971 as her follow up to "Harper Valley PTA".

Shearer, along with her long time collaborator and musical director Ted Savarese, assembled well known players from the Brooklyn roots music scene that has coalesced around Norah Jones, and augmented the roster with a cast of crack LA musicians. Most of the tunes were captured in a single take, adding to the album's warm, spontaneous feeling. "I sent everybody demos, " Shearer says. "They're all such great players that most of the arrangements jelled in the studio and added the live, vibrant feeling of the music. I think we captured that air of spontaneous creativity you get when you're flying blind and everything clicks." Producer Larry added a final polish and mix. "He's amazing, " says Shearer. "He took these songs and somehow made them more 'me' than I could have ever done. It takes considerable talent to perform a task like that."

In the past few years Shearer's live gigs and indie albums, including Music of a Saturday Night and The Sycamore, have generated a considerable street level buzz. KFOG, San Francisco's progressive rock station, has featured her music regularly. Shearer's 2006 performance at SXSW earned rave reviews and led to her deal with Amoeba Records. Close to Dark is the label's premiere release, and an album that shows Shearer's singing and songwriting achieving a striking new level of maturity.

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