John Moreland Drops Live Video For Folk-Rock ‘Gentle Violence’
Highly acclaimed American singer-songwriter John Moreland releases a stunning live video performance for folk rock track “Gentle Violence,” recorded live at Tower Theatre in Oklahoma City, OK during his tour. The song features on new album Visitor, a deeply thoughtful and instantly compelling new album which is out now digitally via his label Old Omens via Thirty Tigers, with the vinyl release following tomorrow on Friday May 31. The video is directed by Rahul Chakraborty.
On the song Moreland stated, “Gentle Violence is a song about a strained relationship with a loved one, in the hyper-political post-pandemic USA. The tension and sorrow around the tough relationship are a microcosm of the tension and sorrow we feel as citizens of this broken world. ”
It’s no wonder Moreland is revered by The New York Times, Fresh Air and Pitchfork who place him in the top tier of modern singer-songwriters.
Watch “Gentle Violence”
Stream the single “Gentle Violence” Here
An album for our troubled times, recorded after a year in isolation from the chaotic world around him, Moreland perfectly encapsulates the political and personal, on a record that showcases his razor sharp insight, impressive multi-instrumentalism, and his arresting and rich vocals throughout. Listen to Visitor HERE
Moreland’s also announced additional US tour dates including two nights at Los Angeles’ Masonic Lodge @ Hollywood Forever on September 5-6, San Francisco’s The Chapel on September 7 , Portland’s Wonder Ballroom on September 11, Seattle’s Neumos on September 12 and Nashville’s The Basement East on October 8. Tickets to the tour are available now HERE
In November 2022, Moreland stopped working entirely. He took an entire year off from playing shows and didn’t use a smartphone for 6 months. “At the end of that year, I was just like ‘Nobody call me’. I needed to not do anything for a while and just process,” Moreland says. After nearly a decade in the limelight, constantly jostled by the expectations of his audience, the music industry, and anonymous strangers online, he carved out some time to rest, heal, and reflect for the first time.
The result of that unplugged year at home is Visitor. Moreland recorded the album at his home in Bixby, Oklahoma, in only ten days, playing nearly every instrument himself (his wife Pearl Rachinsky sang on one song, and his longtime collaborator John Calvin Abney contributed a guitar solo), as well as engineering and mixing the album.
“In 2023, during a year-long break from touring, in an attempt to regain my sanity, I stopped using a smart phone for 6 months, and wrote this album.” Moreland stated, adding, “I recorded it in my living room, with help from my wife, Pearl Rachinsky. I wanted to make a natural sounding folk-rock record. Simplicity and immediacy felt very important to the process, so I knocked out the tracking in about 10 days, playing every instrument on the album myself, save for one guitar solo (John Calvin Abney – The More You Say, The Less It Means), and Pearl contributed some bgv’s on one song (Ain’t Much I Can Do About It). Lyrical themes include digital life vs actual life, a bit of “What the hell is up with the world?,” and a whole bunch of “What the hell is wrong with me?””
John Moreland is known for writing lines that hit you in the gut, but many of the best moments on Visitor are more subtle. The significance of one of the record’s best lines, from “The More You Say, The Less It Means,” may take multiple listens to fully sink in: “Some folks say and some folks know”. This line sums up John Moreland’s worldview very neatly. It lays out the dichotomy of truth and lies that Moreland has spent his entire career examining, but now more elegantly than ever.
Moreland has been an outlier and walked his own path his entire career which began when he made major industry impact in 2010s with an impressive run of albums that earned him a devoted fanbase, accolades from outlets like The New York Times, Fresh Air, and Pitchfork and a place in the upper echelon of modern American singer-songwriters. Then Moreland highlighted his fierce artistic independence and released a brilliant and sonically layered folk-electronica meditation on modern alienation, 2022’s Birds In The Ceiling, that took some of his fans by surprise. Once again he went against the grain when after wrapping up a difficult tour behind that record he shut out the world and made Visitor, arguably the best album of his career.
Celebrating his ingenuity of songcraft, thoughtful lyricism and a possession of a singular voice – one that will further establish John Moreland as one of the great singer-songwriters of his generation.
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