Дюйм этой миле Нью-Йорка

Longtime NYC rock drummer Christian Rutledge has traded his skins for strings. After years of keeping heavy time in hard-ringing outfits like Vagina Panther, Space Merchants, and Freaky Wilderness, Rutledge is stepping to the mic for his solo debut, An Inch of This New York Mile. The spare, lyric-driven tunes draw on Americana influences like Woody Guthrie and Gillian Welch, with strains of acts like The Replacements and Billy Bragg.Production and engineering were handled by Matt Shane (Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello), with mastering by Fred Kevorkian. The backing band includes drummer Dan Rieser and vocalist Misty Boyce - both Rosanne Cash regulars - alongside bassist Rich Hammond (Joan Osborne, Joe Jackson) and Chris Tarrow on guitar, mandolin, and pedal steel. Their support adds texture and filigree, but it's Rutledge's deeply humane songs and haunted delivery that form the heart of a record both warm in its comforts and spiky in its worldview.Steeped in country's narrative tradition, Rutledge carves his own path on urban tales like opener Jesus Bushwick, a whimsical breakup song about his former Brooklyn neighborhood. Coal Miner Songs is a work ballad set in the underground gloom of the city's subways. On My Bodega, Rutledge assumes the voice of a New York shop owner asserting his place - "I'm an inch of this New York mile" - after decades behind the counter. Delicate and devastating. What I'd Been Waiting For is a redemption song with world-weary beauty worthy of the late John Prine: "Sometimes certain turns out wrong / and always might not last that long / ¿ I looked up and there you were / a promise I could keep for sure." Fundraising Drive transposes the sardonic satire of Townes Van Zandt and David Allan Coe to Brooklyn enclaves where your tote bag says everything. Closer Where the Meadow Meets the Mountain is a hazy elegy threaded through with Tarrow's shimmering pedal steel.Inspired by the age of invisible music, Brooklyn label AQUALAMB publishes books of artwork and writing as accompaniments to its releases - each album's liner notes reconfigured into an expanded book form.