Pre-order now for a CD copy autographed by the band! We will ship in early March.
Your early purchase helps fund manufacturing and marketing costs for the project. This is a limited-time offer.
Boiled In Lead have returned to the studio with “King of the Dogwoods” – the band’s first studio recording in over a decade. Over 40-plus years, the band’s radically eclectic signature sound has been a constant.
Key tracks include:
• “King of the Dogwoods” by lead singer Todd Menton – dreamtime images from a scarlet tanager to 1950s horror film “The Monster of Piedras Blancas”
• “Je T’Aime, Helena” by longtime collaborator John C. Van Orman – on the road to Lake Ponchartrain with bourbon & bellicose companions
• “Bold Lovell” – rock treatment of highway robbery ballad without a “whack-fol-the-daddy” in sight. Different song, same story as “Whiskey In The Jar” (Metallica, Thin Lizzy).
Along the way the album seamlessly mixes genres from heavy noise to accapella vocals, world music material from Ireland to Serbia, and a strong dose of the unexpected. Yet it all sounds like BiL.
“The remarkable thing is that BiL can come out so full of energy and desire after more than 40 years together. Whether it’s on original or traditional material, that punk edge
cuts through to add a sharpness to everything. A real force to be reckoned with, showing everyone how it should be done.” – Chris Nickson, author and music journalistbout the tracks:
CD includes a download card. Code will be emailed to you in advance of shipping.
The Music
The King of the Dogwoods
(Todd Menton, Klarn Too Music ASCAP)
Sometimes the spirit of a place (genius loci) is a scarlet tanager. Sometimes it’s the creature from “The Monster of Piedras Blancas.” Do the elves and shadows of our childhood follow us? Do they join with the spirits of our new ground? Ask Buster – but you might need to shout. He doesn’t like to walk across the snow. For Susan Esbjornson.
Bučimiš Fifteen to the bar. Dance like no one’s witching.
Slip Jigs (Peacock Follow the Hen / Elizabeth Kelly’s / The Old Favorite)
The first tune Haley thought she learned from Todd, but upon discovering that Todd learned it from her, she remembered that she learned it from Norah Rendell along with the second tune. The third tune came rattling out of her base layer of consciousness that is made of session tunes.
(I’ll Sing You) “Sail Away, Ladies”
(Todd Menton, Klarn Too Music ASCAP)For John Van Orman and David Roe. And for Kimbelle, Jim L., and the late, loved, Ray.
The road, the road, the road. “Hey… this inn smells weird…”
Haley’s Reels
(Porthole of the Kelp / Drogheda Lasses / Jack Coughlin’s)
Haley learned the first tune from a recording of Caitlin Warbelow. The second from Norah Rendell, and the third from a Martin Hayes recording.
Je T’aime, Helena
(John C. Van Orman, Poind Man Music ASCAP)
A perilous journey to the bayou with bourbon and bellicose companions. Look sharp for the Next Exit!
Winifer Odd
(Elaine Knight [Lal Waterson], Domino Publishing Company USA OBO Domino Pub. Co. Ltd.)
There’s a person there. Look. Don’t you see them? And they have a whole life, like all of us. Look.
Bold Lovell A young rake betrayed by his sweetheart. Not a whack-fol in sight, but the pistols do get wet. “Hang me, where’s my hat?” For Martin Carthy and Jeanne Morales.
Keshenever Bulgar A sweet, strolling klezmer tune, featuring multiple harmonious Haleys. Todd is pretty sure that he learned this from Al Craig and Ralph White in Texas, early 1980s.
Adje Jano Haley learned an instrumental version of this beautiful song in a previous band. But in a dream where a Serbian Orthodox Priest sang it to her and she joined in, she awoke realizing that it was a song with lyrics. This is why she sings it in Serbian, although it is known in many languages.
Fast Reels (Jenny Rock The Cradle / Tuttle’s)
And now for some irresponsibly fast reels. Jenny comes straight out of O’Neill’s book, different key. Tuttle’s via Kevin Burke. For one and all at The Center for Irish Music, St. Paul MN.
Love, Farewell
The words come from the version performed by Tim Eriksen and Eliza Carthy. We have added a descent into madness because madness has descended upon us.
All tracks traditional, arranged by BiL
(Bold Ned Music ASCAP) except as noted
Produced by Boiled In Lead
Recorded and mixed by Adam Tucker at Signaturetone Recording.
Mastered by Greg Reierson, Rare Form Mastering
Art Whittney Streeter
Photo Darrell Eager
Package Design Kevin Brown at Smart Set, Inc.
Thanks to:
John Wright for lending us your ears
Chris Strouth for sage advice and piano treatments
Dan Polsfuss, video for “King of the Dogwoods”
Jessica Paxton / The Parkway Theater
…and all the Leadheads, past, present and future.
