It’s hard to imagine that JD McPherson, one of the great classically minded rock ‘n’ roll singer-songwriters of the modern era, hasn’t released a new album of non-seasonal material for seven years. This absence of recent recordings has not caused anyone to be concerned about any missing person alerts for him in recent years. He has been well known, serving as bandleader and opening act on three successive Robert Plant/Alison Krauss tours. Eventually, McPherson is focusing on his solo career in an even bigger way again this summer and fall, starting with “Sunshine Getaway,” a new track. Selection is premiering today.
“Sunshine Getaway” heralds the approach of McPherson’s fourth album, “Nite Owls.” (Fifth, if we count the exclusive “Socks” holiday collection, because It is one of the best Christmas news stories ever made, but enough on the math.) “Nite Owls” will be released on New West News on September 27; Pre-order information, including required vinyl exclusives, can be found here.
The album’s release date is scheduled to follow the end of the current Plant/Krauss tour on September 1st and coincide exactly with the first date of a fall tour he is doing, beginning with a September 27th show at Brooklyn Bowl from Nashville and continuing with release until November 23rd. (See the full list of tour dates below.)
McPherson talked about the new single and gave us a preview of the new album from a Plant/Krauss tour date, where he looks like he’s still having a lot of fun, while also appearing to be ahead of getting back to his day job as a self-made man, ultimately.
“Sunshine Getaway” is a very summery-sounding title, but it seems like the inspiration was more wintery and aspirational, perhaps more of a “California Dreamin’” approach?
So yeah. I wrote that track with my friend Jack (Torrey) and Web Page (Burkum) from Cactus Blossoms, who are, like, not always considered the happiest people. They’re from the horrible Midwest, Minneapolis. They were staying in Nashville when I was still living there, staying at Jenny Lewis’ house while she was on tour, and I stopped by to see them and we were just talking about Minneapolis in the winter. They told me this really dark story (about being locked out of the house in the freezing cold), and we started laughing, and we just wrote that track right there. And yeah, we’ve all been there. I think anyone who lives in the middle of the country or the north is aware of that feeling of intense cold that lasts for a long time.
The sound is vitally crunchy, very glam-rock. You may be known for even older influences from the classic rock ‘n’ roll era, but this brings up some that may be less relatable to you.
Well, on any playlist of mine, you’ll see Little Richard right next to T. Rex. You know, I found fuzz guitar on my second album and never went back. This is one of many that we have participated in live and we really loved participating. John Perrin from NRBQ is playing drums for us, and he got some serious pocket money and that track really has grooves, so we can’t wait to go on tour.
What was it like hanging out with Plant and Krauss again?
This is the third year out and it is by far the best so far. We’ve gotten the set to where it’s very dense and goes by quickly and has some uptempo stuff, so the set checklist has kind of been worked out over the last three years, and everyone is just having a great time. All of the people had a number of issues that they were involved in (in addition to each other), and so this was a really nice and welcome break to go on this tour. It’s the time of my life. In fact, I’m prepared for it, and this has been one of the best so far. Playing my opening set also feels great, I think just because there’s something that’s going to happen, and then just time with the Plant/Krauss band is a huge gift.
How would you describe the sounds brought together on the new album?
I remember the germ of the main track came after I had a free Spotify account and I was simply trying to see what was there, and I was kind of surprised by how many things I like were there. And I listened to a very useful daily playlist in the future, they were usually playing stuff like Astrid Gilberto and some old Seashore Boys and Fireballs and Ventures songs. And it just hit me like, this is all music by the water. I need to do a water report! That was the main thought.
And I believe “The Rock and Roll Women” was the main track that was finally completed. I had a part of this track written a long time ago because it’s about my daughter as a child kicking the back of my car seat. And anyway, that was kind of the beginning of the thought. And I started to get interested in surf music in general, and how there’s a common thread between surf music like Ventures, Ennio Morricone soundtracks and Depeche Mode. There’s this common thread of this reverberating single-string guitar that runs through all of these things. And once I had that in my head, the songs just started coming out really quickly. That’s when “Just Like Summer” arrived, and those songs were kind of raucous. So that report ended up being… My elevator pitch to people was: This report is that if the mid-60s to late 60s Ventures were the session band for New Order’s first report. It’s kind of my love for dark surf music plus my dark wave days in high school. It’s kind of my goth-surf report.
It’s clear that people have seen you on these walks and know that you didn’t just sit around. However, to do an entirely new report, seven years is a long time. So did the time pass quickly or did it seem like a long time?
If somehow I could say that it both took an awfully long time and also passed very quickly, both would be correct. My sense of time because lockdown has been completely dispersed and disrupted. You know, I had a hard time finding my position in time before, but now it’s even worse. So it all looks like some kind of silly temporal shift has occurred. But honestly, this report could have been published much earlier, because its germ began well before the pandemic occurred. Even some recordings were made before that. But then a lot of things happened in my life between then and now. So it’s happening now, and in fact, that’s how it’s been alleged to have happened.
The first attempt was, for lack of time, a difficult lesson for me, because it was with my previous band, and we took some classes at East West Studios in Los Angeles and stayed in a nice house and all the little things. And it was a kind of attempt by me to have a child to maintain a collective marriage, and it didn’t work. So when some of the old gang started to fall apart during the pandemic, I was kind of exhausted for a minute. In fact, I didn’t even need to consider these songs or do anything with them. You know, along with everything the pandemic provided, I was planning on just doing something else with my life at that time. One thing I flirted with was being someone who recommends what wood to plant in people’s yards. It seemed like a nice job, helping people get the right tree to grow, how to make it grow better. So it was a strange time for me.
When I started to finally feel the need to do something again, I had some old friends that I had previously made music with and some new friends that I had never made music with, and we got together and made the “Warfare, Covers” EP. They weren’t my songs, but they were songs that I liked and they were recorded the way I liked to record them, with a group of very upbeat, upbeat people. And so I was really, really, very cautiously approaching making music again. And as soon as that happened, we made a second attempt to write this report, and it didn’t work out just for inventive reasons. This time we had a producer, and although I really liked the producer and his working physique, for some reason the music wasn’t jelly. And I think it’s probably because we’re the people I fall in with, now we have almost like this secret language that twins teach each other. We talked about really obscure musical references. And so, unless you’re a freak like us, we’re prone to losing people.
So it was like the final probability. So I went to record with Alex Hall, who had something to do with practically every record I made, whether it was playing drums, mixing, engineering or something like that. And we just went back to his house and recorded it almost live, and now, here we are – now we have a report.
“Nite Owls” note the listing:
1. Getaway in the sun
2. I Can’t Go Anywhere With You (feat. Bloodshot Invoice)
3. Just like summer
4. Owls
5. Shining like gold
6. The women of rock and roll
7. Childish sadness
8. The Ghost Lover of New Rochelle
9. Don’t travel alone at night
10. This is what a love melody does to you
JD McPherson on tour:
Supporting Robert Plant and Alison Krauss:
August 8 – Missoula, MT – KettleHouse Amphitheater
August 9 – Missoula, MT – KettleHouse Amphitheater
August 11 – Edmonton, AB – Edmonton People Music Pageant
August 13 – Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabeth Theater
August 14 – Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabeth Theater
August 16 – Seattle, WA – Chateau Ste. Michelle Vinhedo
August 17 – Seattle, WA – Chateau Ste. Michelle Vinhedo
August 19 – Eugene, OR – Cuthbert Amphitheater
August 21 – Murphys, CA – Ironstone Amphitheater
August 22 – Stanford, CA – Frost Amphitheater
August 24 – Paso Robles, CA – Vina Robles Amphitheater
August 25 – Highland, CA – Yaamava Theater
August 26 – Flagstaff, AZ – Pepsi Amphitheater
August 28 – Santa Fe, NM – Santa Fe Opera
August 29 – Santa Fe, NM – Santa Fe Opera
August 31 – Colorado Springs, CO – Ford Amphitheater
September 1 – Vail, CO – Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater
Owls Title Tour:
September 27th – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl
September 28 – Atlanta, GA – West Terminal
September 29 – Asheville, NC – The Gray Eagle
October 1st – Washington, DC – Atlantis
October 2 – Ardmore, PA – Ardmore Music Corridor
October 4th – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
October 6 – Boston, MA – The Sinclair
October 8 – Toronto, ON – The Live performance Corridor
October 9th – Detroit, MI – Magic Bag
October 11 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
October 12 – Chicago, IL – Subway
November 7th – Little Rock, AR – Whitewater Tavern
November 8 – Dallas, TX – The Kessler
November 9th – Austin, TX – Scoot Inn
November 12th – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
November 14 – Pioneertown, CA – Pappy & Harriet’s
November 15 – Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theater
November 16 – San Francisco, CA – August Corridor
November 18th – Portland, OR – Marvel Ballroom
November 19 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
November 21 – Salt Lake City, UT – Commonwealth Room
November 22 – Fort Collins, CO – Aggie Theater
November 23 – Denver, CO – Gothic Theater