| TERRY LEE HALE — "THE LONG DRAW" |
TERRY LEE HALE — "THE LONG DRAW"
Ξ Terry Lee Hale’s new album The Long Draw is here! An album of short stories, it’s like Raymond Carver’s “Short Cuts” but framed with music. A travelogue filled with the vagaries of American lives. This is not typical Americana fare though. These songs are strong and deep where our resources lay. Simple production and arrangements only point vaguely towards traditions or style. There is no detracting from the clear, unrelenting drama of the albums 8 songs and their characters. Stories of America written by an American who no longer lives there. This records is not: 45 minutes of feedback, inane repetitive choruses, gauze tissued, a reason to stay in bed or not go to work. The Long Draw is all about songs. Stories. A songwriter and a vision shaped by a life of travel, adventure, wandering and searching. A journey not ended.
Terry Lee Hale (handelsbeurs), 2012 © Caroline De Meyer
Born: May 12, 1953 in San Antonio, Texas
Location: Paris, France
Album release: October 14, 2013
Record Label: Glitterhouse Records
Cat-No: GRCD/LP 775
Duration: 45:16
Tracks:
01 Long Draw 5:39
02 What She Wrote 5:54
03 Black Forest Phone Call 6:43
04 The Sad Ballad of Muley Graves 5:24
05 Three Days 4:24
06 The Central 5:25
07 L.A. 9th & Grand 4:35
08 Gold Mine 7:12
REVIEW
Paul Kerr; Wednesday, 13 November 2013; Score: 9
Ξ Tales for today told by an excellent storyteller.
♠ Something of a veteran, Terry Lee Hale is not a name often dropped at Americana themed parties. More's the pity as this Texan born, Paris based songwriter has released one of the better albums of the year. Hale has a lengthy track record dating back to his debut on a Sub Pop sampler, Sub Pop 200 where he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Nirvana, tad, Soundgarden, Green River, Mudhoney and The Walkabouts. The latter's Chris Eckman has been a constant in Hale's career (while Glen Slater, Walkabouts keyboard player appears on The Long Draw) and both have long been associated with Glitterhouse, one of those labels that everyone should have at least several of their releases in their collection.
♠ The Long Draw, Hale's 12th release, was recorded in Paris and is a lean, raw boned collection of tales like pages torn from a diary with locations all recorded in the liner notes. Recorded live in the studio Hale is joined by drummer Frantxoa Errecarret on all the songs with bass and keyboard duties shared amongst several other participants. There's a fine loose limbed feel to the songs but it's his percussive guitar style and half spoken vocals that dominate with whispers of J. J. Cale or Lou Reed in his delivery.
♠ While What she Wrote is taken at a sprightly pace with some fine pedal steel playing from Jon Hyde and Three Long Days clatters along with scrubbed guitar sounding almost like a Calexico song the majority of the songs are tense, punchy, defiant almost. The title song burns with indignation as Hale sets it in the shadow of a defunct motor assembly plant in Michigan. Black Forest Phone Call tells of the suicide of a friend and compares the art of living to surviving a war.
♠ There's a poignancy to the bittersweet memories recalled by a dishevelled drifter as he revisits his abandoned home in The Sad Ballad of Muley Graves and here the band slows almost to a halt as if standing before each artefact trying to remember, a great performance. Hale cuts loose on the almost frivolous L.A. 9th & Grand, a parade of Runyonesque characters with a pumping organ and Basement Tape like leeriness.
♠ The best is kept to the last as Hale and Errecarret deliver the superb Goldmine which serves the album much in the same way as Dylan's Highlands served Time Out of Mind even sharing a starting point with Hale sitting in a café restaurant and pondering his life. It's an excellent end to a thought provoking album. (http://www.americana-uk.com/)
Website: http://www.terryleehale.com/
MySpace: https://myspace.com/terryleehale
Label: http://label.glitterhouse.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/Terryleehale2?feature=mhee
Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/terryleehale?profile_view_source=profile_box
Twitter: https://twitter.com/terryleehale
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/terry-lee-hale/sets
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Terry-Lee-Hale/120267151349251
Bio:
♠ Born: 1953 — San Antonio, Texas. Born into an army family Terry Lee attended 10 schools in 10 different cities. After finishing high school in Yakima, Washington he set out for Seattle, then California and continued from there to travel in the States all the while learning to play guitar and write songs. TLH has worked as a carpenter, truck driver, farm and ranch hand, cook, laborer, bar tender, booking agent and various other occupations to support himself, his daughter (as a single parent) and his music. From the first time he heard Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" he wanted to be a guitar player and indeed, bought a Stella when he was 14. Terry Lee has lived and traveled extensively in America and, since 1993 in Europe as well. His first appearance on record was on 1987's "Lowlife" compilation from Ironwood Studios and the following year with his song "Dead Is Dead" on SubPop 200.
♠ Now, there are 12 Cd's released in Europe, all of them (except the last) on German recording labels. The first was in 1993 with " Oh What A World" on Normal Records. ♠ The next 8 CD's (Frontier Model, The Wilderness Years, Tornado Alley, Leaving West, Old Hand, Blue Room, Frozen, Tender Loving Hell: The Best Of…) were with Glitterhouse Records. The next 3 releases were with Blue Rose Records. Celebration What For in 2004 and one self-titled release called Hardpan along with one live CD/DVD — Hardpan Live — which featured American songwriters Chris Burroughs, Joseph Parsons Todd Thibaud and Terry Lee Hale. In 2007 he released his latest CD called “Shotgun Pillowcase” on the Spanish Borderdreams label.
♠ Terry Lee lives just outside Paris, France with his wife Katy.
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| TERRY LEE HALE — "THE LONG DRAW" |
Ξ Terry Lee Hale’s new album The Long Draw is here! An album of short stories, it’s like Raymond Carver’s “Short Cuts” but framed with music. A travelogue filled with the vagaries of American lives. This is not typical Americana fare though. These songs are strong and deep where our resources lay. Simple production and arrangements only point vaguely towards traditions or style. There is no detracting from the clear, unrelenting drama of the albums 8 songs and their characters. Stories of America written by an American who no longer lives there. This records is not: 45 minutes of feedback, inane repetitive choruses, gauze tissued, a reason to stay in bed or not go to work. The Long Draw is all about songs. Stories. A songwriter and a vision shaped by a life of travel, adventure, wandering and searching. A journey not ended.
Born: May 12, 1953 in San Antonio, Texas
Location: Paris, France
Album release: October 14, 2013
Record Label: Glitterhouse Records
Cat-No: GRCD/LP 775
Duration: 45:16
Tracks:
01 Long Draw 5:39
02 What She Wrote 5:54
03 Black Forest Phone Call 6:43
04 The Sad Ballad of Muley Graves 5:24
05 Three Days 4:24
06 The Central 5:25
07 L.A. 9th & Grand 4:35
08 Gold Mine 7:12
REVIEW
Paul Kerr; Wednesday, 13 November 2013; Score: 9
Ξ Tales for today told by an excellent storyteller.
♠ Something of a veteran, Terry Lee Hale is not a name often dropped at Americana themed parties. More's the pity as this Texan born, Paris based songwriter has released one of the better albums of the year. Hale has a lengthy track record dating back to his debut on a Sub Pop sampler, Sub Pop 200 where he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Nirvana, tad, Soundgarden, Green River, Mudhoney and The Walkabouts. The latter's Chris Eckman has been a constant in Hale's career (while Glen Slater, Walkabouts keyboard player appears on The Long Draw) and both have long been associated with Glitterhouse, one of those labels that everyone should have at least several of their releases in their collection.
♠ The Long Draw, Hale's 12th release, was recorded in Paris and is a lean, raw boned collection of tales like pages torn from a diary with locations all recorded in the liner notes. Recorded live in the studio Hale is joined by drummer Frantxoa Errecarret on all the songs with bass and keyboard duties shared amongst several other participants. There's a fine loose limbed feel to the songs but it's his percussive guitar style and half spoken vocals that dominate with whispers of J. J. Cale or Lou Reed in his delivery.
♠ While What she Wrote is taken at a sprightly pace with some fine pedal steel playing from Jon Hyde and Three Long Days clatters along with scrubbed guitar sounding almost like a Calexico song the majority of the songs are tense, punchy, defiant almost. The title song burns with indignation as Hale sets it in the shadow of a defunct motor assembly plant in Michigan. Black Forest Phone Call tells of the suicide of a friend and compares the art of living to surviving a war.
♠ There's a poignancy to the bittersweet memories recalled by a dishevelled drifter as he revisits his abandoned home in The Sad Ballad of Muley Graves and here the band slows almost to a halt as if standing before each artefact trying to remember, a great performance. Hale cuts loose on the almost frivolous L.A. 9th & Grand, a parade of Runyonesque characters with a pumping organ and Basement Tape like leeriness.
♠ The best is kept to the last as Hale and Errecarret deliver the superb Goldmine which serves the album much in the same way as Dylan's Highlands served Time Out of Mind even sharing a starting point with Hale sitting in a café restaurant and pondering his life. It's an excellent end to a thought provoking album. (http://www.americana-uk.com/)
Website: http://www.terryleehale.com/
MySpace: https://myspace.com/terryleehale
Label: http://label.glitterhouse.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/Terryleehale2?feature=mhee
Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/terryleehale?profile_view_source=profile_box
Twitter: https://twitter.com/terryleehale
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/terry-lee-hale/sets
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Terry-Lee-Hale/120267151349251
Bio:
♠ Born: 1953 — San Antonio, Texas. Born into an army family Terry Lee attended 10 schools in 10 different cities. After finishing high school in Yakima, Washington he set out for Seattle, then California and continued from there to travel in the States all the while learning to play guitar and write songs. TLH has worked as a carpenter, truck driver, farm and ranch hand, cook, laborer, bar tender, booking agent and various other occupations to support himself, his daughter (as a single parent) and his music. From the first time he heard Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" he wanted to be a guitar player and indeed, bought a Stella when he was 14. Terry Lee has lived and traveled extensively in America and, since 1993 in Europe as well. His first appearance on record was on 1987's "Lowlife" compilation from Ironwood Studios and the following year with his song "Dead Is Dead" on SubPop 200.
♠ Now, there are 12 Cd's released in Europe, all of them (except the last) on German recording labels. The first was in 1993 with " Oh What A World" on Normal Records. ♠ The next 8 CD's (Frontier Model, The Wilderness Years, Tornado Alley, Leaving West, Old Hand, Blue Room, Frozen, Tender Loving Hell: The Best Of…) were with Glitterhouse Records. The next 3 releases were with Blue Rose Records. Celebration What For in 2004 and one self-titled release called Hardpan along with one live CD/DVD — Hardpan Live — which featured American songwriters Chris Burroughs, Joseph Parsons Todd Thibaud and Terry Lee Hale. In 2007 he released his latest CD called “Shotgun Pillowcase” on the Spanish Borderdreams label.
♠ Terry Lee lives just outside Paris, France with his wife Katy.
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