Friday, August 12, 2016

Glen Phillip Premieres Second Single "Grief And Praise" on American Songwriter

Exciting news for fans of literate and melodic songcraft. The wonderful Glen Phillips is set to return with his first new solo album in a decade...

Glen Phillip Premieres Second Single "Grief And Praise" on American Songwriter

New Album Swallowed By The New Out October 7

 
SANTA BARBARA, CALIF.  ––  Singer/songwriter Glen Phillips premieres "Grief and Praise," the second single from his forthcoming album Swallowed By The New, his first in a decade, out October 7, 2016.



“The title for this song came from a Martin Prechtel talk,” says Phillips. “He describes grief and praise as being the mirrored aspects of love in the face of inevitable loss: Praise is grieving what we love and will lose, grief is praising what we love and have lost. I wrote this song three days into the recording of the album. I had been thinking about Prechtel’s concept and knew that I had left some things unsaid on the album as it stood. I knew I had to praise my children and my former wife, to thank them for the life we’d had together and honor the new lives we were all beginning. It’s the core of everything this record is about."

Recorded in May 2015 with producer/bass player Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann, Lucinda Williams) and a small backing band, Swallowed By The New takes on life’s difficult transitions and delivers some of his most poignant and candid songs ever written.
 
“I wrote these songs in the difficult first year of [my] divorce process,” explains Glen. “I’m realizing now that everything was done from a place of love. In a period of transition we can feel injured, or use it as an opportunity to change and grow. These songs were the tools I used to get through that period. It’s a lesson I’m still trying to learn.”
 
Amnesty the first single that debuted on Entertainment Weekly in July, examines the long journey one takes searching for understanding and a safe harbor. “Home feels a million miles tonight/Hope feels a little hard to find/We're all stumbling towards the light /And we beg to be released/Would you offer amnesty?”
 
Although the subject matter can be somber, there’s a hopeful look to the future and reassuring tone as Glen describes a husband packing his belongings to begin anew in “Leaving Oldtown”: “I'm leaving Oldtown/With no direction, learning how to be alone/Learning how to stand on my own two feet/I’m getting good now”
“Now that a year has passed, I’m looking back, grateful for the opportunity to start again,” he reflects. “With children growing up and leaving home, and my marriage dissolving, a chapter of my life was coming to a close. Difficult transitions are challenging, but ultimately rewarding.”
Glen Phillips will tour with summer with Toad The Wet Sprocket before embarking a solo, acoustic tour this fall.

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