It was a big July for Wes Tirey with the release of his new record Wes Tirey Sings Selected Works of Billy the Kid. The great KLOF Mag premiered the music video for "Work 5," one of six sung songs on the album, which also features a spoken-word piece and two instrumentals. The words sung and spoken on the album are by Michael Ondaatje from his novel in verse, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. Watch the video for "Work 5" at KLOF Mag, where Wes Tirey offered up a left-handed poem of his own to sweeten the imagery.
Separately, KLOF Mag writer Danny Neill wrote a wonderful review of the record. Danny totally gets it:
"The wonderous element of these tracks is that, rather than plucking the words and images from the pages of Michael Ondaatje’s exploratory novel issued in 1970 (titled ‘The Collected Works Of Billy The Kid’) and aiming to present them in a modern context, with 21st-century audio dynamics to the fore, Wes has gone so far back the rolling ball swallows notions of ‘retro’ whole and laughs in the face of ‘vintage’. This is something else entirely, a ghostly experience transmitting in from another place and time. You picture a dusty, empty saloon surrounded by billowing trees and torn fabric, a sad foreboding voice testifying from a gramophone player in the corner that has no record rotating nor any other sign of life in the vicinity. And such is the hypnotic manner in which Wes delivers these sermon-like works, sometimes a spoken recital devoid of melody, but even when sung still a haunted growl, you must conclude that the chink of light breaking through from another age effect was exactly his intention."
There's also an excellent review of Wes Tirey Sings Selected Works of Billy the Kid as part of the "Pressing Concerns" column at the mighty Rosy Overdrive:
"From the opening spoken-word description of 'the killed, by me,' Tirey-as-Ondaatje-as-Billy the Kid is crystal clear and engrossing. Tirey taps into the centuries-old 'folk music as storytelling' well here–like with similar-minded contemporaries Spencer Dobbs and Jason Allen Millard (as well as the most renowned poet-musician the collection recalls, Leonard Cohen), any attic-accumulated dust on these recordings is outshone by what’s contained therein. Tirey gives all the songs incorporating Ondaatje’s writing the utilitarian titles of 'Work 1,' 'Work 2,' et cetera, which, combined with his simple acoustic guitar accompaniment, serves to mimic the original’s resistance of a clean linear narrative or structure. Tales of murder and fleeing from the law lose the immediate drama that’s kept them at the forefront of American culture for so long, replaced by a lonesome man recounting stories dispassionately, without tipping his hand as to whether it’s for posterity or for atonement."
Stay tuned for more about a Wes Tirey record release show in August at Bagatelle Books in Asheville!
In the meantime, if you haven't already, pick up Wes Tirey Sings Selected Works of Billy the Kid on 160-gram gold vinyl. The album is also available digitally wherever you stream music.
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