EMITT RHODES impossible return after 43 years "Rainbow Ends"

[jamestkirk]

Emitt returns with backing artists Richard Thompson, the Bangles, Wilco and others



Emitt Rhodes Breaks 43 Years of Silence on 'Rainbow Ends'

By PABLO GORONDI, ASSOCIATED PRESS Feb 25, 2016, 1:50 PM ET




Rainbow Ends...his voice is a revelation. Still so fine. Let it play on...full album listens. Please buy it now!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wUCOawdMXU

Emitt Rhodes, "Rainbow Ends" (Omnivore Recordings)

A prodigy who recorded mostly on his own, Emitt Rhodes' early '70s albums drew comparisons to Paul McCartney and Harry Nilsson for their effortless melodies and soaring vocals. Music industry shenanigans and illnesses, however, kept him from releasing material for decades, but "Rainbow Ends" sounds like time has hardly passed.

Expertly backed by members of bands like Jellyfish, Wilco and New Pornographers, as well as Aimee Mann, Jon Brion and Susanna Hoffs — among his longtime fans — the 11 tracks on the album benefit greatly from the newer talents while keeping Rhodes in the lead.

There are shades of Charlie Rich and Warren Zevon on some tunes, softer rockers and overdriven guitars — Fernando Perdomo's bass excels throughout — as Rhodes sticks to vocals and acoustic guitars.

No longer reaching the falsetto he once used habitually, the slight gruffness in Rhodes' voice after the 43-year layoff suits themes like regrets, divorce and jealous minds just fine.

Producer Chris Price, who coaxed Rhodes back into the studio, deserves kudos for the sympathetic sounds which in a better world would have topped the charts in 1978 or so.

Rich and Zevon are gone but Rhodes rolls on. Here's hoping there's more to come.

[jamestkirk]

Press Release: Emitt Rhodes Rainbow Ends

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOVEMBER 12, 2015

Emitt Rhodes to release first new album in 43 years. Rainbow Ends coming February 26, 2016 from Omnivore Recordings.

The singer-songwriter, whose 1971 debut is a power-pop classic, was joined by special guests Roger Joseph Manning Jr. & Jason Falkner of Jellyfish, Nels Cline, Aimee Mann, Susanna Hoffs, Jon Brion, Bleu, and members of Brian Wilson’s band.

SXSW 2016 showcase confirmed.

PledgeMusic campaign underway, providing premiums varied from deluxe editions of recording to a day in Rhodes’ studio.


LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Emitt Rhodes began his career in his teens, as drummer for the SoCal band The Palace Guard. He eventually took the reigns as leader of The Merry Go Round, who scored pop hits with “Live” and “You’re a Very Lovely Woman” in the late 1960s. At the release of his critically acclaimed eponymous debut in 1971, he gained a reputation as a “one-man Beatles,” since he wrote, recorded and produced the album in his home studio. But then, the way many music stories unfurl, after battling bad contracts and industry demands, Rhodes saw his last release, Farewell To Paradise, in 1973. Emitt Rhodes never recorded another full-length LP. Until now.

On February 26, 2016, Omnivore Recordings will proudly release Rainbow Ends, Emitt Rhodes’ first new studio album in 43 years, on CD, Digital and gatefold, colored vinyl. A PledgeMusic campaign has been set up for pre-orders, offering exclusive collectibles, the album itself, and even a day in Rhodes’ studio. Details are available at http://www.pledgemusic.com/emittrhodes

After connecting with producer Chris Price in 2013, Rhodes revived his home studio with help from Price and an all-star band, all of whom had been enamored of Rhodes’ work: Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Jason Falkner (both solo artists, members of Jellyfish, and currently in Beck’s studio and touring band), indie producer and musician Fernando Perdomo, Rooney’s Taylor Locke and New Pornographers’ drummer Joe Seiders. They would cut the new record live in that space.

More special guests appeared to make this momentous release even more special: Aimee Mann, Susanna Hoffs (Bangles), composer and producer Jon Brion, Wilco’s Nels Cline and Pat Sansone, Bleu, and Probyn Gregory & Nelson Bragg from Brain Wilson’s band, among others. What was achieved is more than what folks thought would ever happen. They made Emitt’s first full-length in more than four decades.

Rainbow Ends is the album generations have been waiting for. Eleven new tracks for longtime fans who’d held onto their out-of-print ABC albums, for those who found out about Rhodes via “Lullaby” being featured in The Royal Tennenbaums, and for the uninitiated who’d heard their favorite artists and friends rave about his small, but truly vital and influential catalog.

An Emitt Rhodes showcase at SXSW 2016 will be a highlight of the annual music festival, and more dates are in the works.

Producer Price says, “I view this as a continuation album, meaning it isn’t meant to be recreating the sound from his first record, but instead what he might have sounded like after his third album, Farewell To Paradise, if he kept making music in the mid-to-late ’70s.”

According to Rhodes, “I had a spurt there, you know. I just wrote a whole bunch of songs. I’m just gonna write what my heart tells me, because that’s the only thing that really matters, isn’t it? Sometimes you don’t know, and then the light goes on and you do know.

“The music is very good on this record. I think that these guys are all wonderful players and there’s all sorts of interesting stuff. I hope people like it, and I want you young guys to be able to get your due.

“I think whenever it happens, it happens on time.”

It’s rare to have your dreams come true. For many, a new Emitt Rhodes recording has only been a fantasy. In 2016, the Rainbow Ends at a true pot of gold.


CD/LP/Digital Track List:
1. Dog On A Chain
2. If I Knew Then
3. If It Isn’t So
4. This Wall Between Us
5. Someone Else
6. I Can’t Tell My Heart
7. Put Some Rhythm To It
8. It’s All Behind Us Now
9. What’s a Man To Do
10. Friday’s Love
11. Rainbow Ends

Watch (and feel free to post) the Emitt Rhodes Pledge Music trailer:
https://youtu.be/vwklFEv0Z68

[jamestkirk]

Emitt Rhodes: Rainbow Ends
This is a major return for a reclusive musician whose talents seem to have remained almost as “fresh as a daisy.”

Written By Hal Horowitz // February 25, 2016 // American Songwriter


What does a highly respected pop-rocker do in the 43 years (!) between releases? That’s something we don’t find out on Emitt Rhodes’ first set of new material since the Nixon administration. What we do know is that Rhodes hasn’t lost touch with his songwriting muse or vocal talents during the extended sabbatical.

The clean, clear, charmingly boyish voice belies the snow white hair and beard he now sports. But where he once played every instrument on his three previous releases over four decades ago, now a gaggle of medium profile guests assist Rhodes on his long awaited return to the studio.

Those scratching their heads and wondering “who IS this guy?” can take a crash course by spinning the Emitt Rhodes Recordings (1969-1973), a double set collecting his previous work. Once you’re up to speed on those magnificent, Beatles influenced pop songs — most performed by creatively overdubbing himself in his home studio (similar to McCartney’s debut), when that was far more difficult and time consuming than it is today — you will also be mystified as to why Rhodes has taken so long to follow them up.

Regardless, he’s back and if these results reflecting about two years of work in Rhodes’ home studio with producer Chris Price don’t quite capture the vibrancy of his earlier work, they are close enough not to disappoint those who stuck around waiting for them.

As titles such as “What’s a Man to Do,” “I Can’t Tell My Heart” “It’s All Behind Us Now” and “The Wall Between Us” imply, Rhodes spends the majority of his lyrics exploring relationships, many of which are going through tough times and/or result in unhappy endings. Some, as when he sings “the door is closing/ I’m out of time,” ostensibly refer to losing a love, but can also be interpreted as a reflection on his mortality.

Just as back in the early ’70s, these words are surrounded with easy flowing melodies seemingly plucked from thin air. The joy of Rhodes’ work remains his ability to create pop that’s complex yet sounds simple, graceful and effortless. And while there may be a few too many similarly paced ballads to close out the disc’s final third, taken individually, each of these selections adds another minor gem to his dusty catalog. The occasional appearance of horns and strings is also a new twist, but they are used sparingly and with immaculate taste to create tension and release on the reflective closing title track and a handful of others.

Tunes like the mid-tempo shuffle of the jazz/bluesy walking bass propelled “If I Knew Then” are just a notch below Rhodes’ earlier work and may yet become as well-regarded as those songs. Support by members of Jellyfish, the Bangles and others is effectively laid back even it lacks some of the spark and energy his fans might expect.

Still, this is a major return for a reclusive musician whose talents seem to have remained almost as “fresh as a daisy,” as the title of an old Rhodes song proclaims. It’s an unexpected thrill to have him back.

Now about that next album …

[jamestkirk]

Review: Emitt Rhodes, “Rainbow Ends”




Dog On A Chain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcXw18EDCDo


FEBRUARY 26, 2016 BY JOE MARCHESE 4 COMMENTS
theseconddisc.com

Emmit Rhodes - Rainbow Ends
BUY NOW FROM AMAZON.COM

A new Emitt Rhodes album. That’s right, say it again – a new Emitt Rhodes album. With the release of Rainbow Ends, Omnivore Recordings has delivered on what has long been thought an impossibility. The cult tunesmith and multi-instrumentalist earned his stripes as a member of The Palace Guard and then the harmony-soaked LA band The Merry-Go-Round (“You’re a Very Lovely Woman,” “Live”) before recording four beautiful solo albums for A&M and ABC/Dunhill. His last full-length LP, Farewell Paradise, was released in 1973, and Rhodes all but disappeared. A trickle of new music emerged in 2010 and 2011, and in 2015, the artist contributed a fine recording of The Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” to a Gibb tribute disc. Yet against all odds, with this release some 43 years after Farewell Paradise, Emitt Rhodes has found pop paradise once again on eleven lovingly crafted new songs.

An all-star cast of indie rockers has assembled under the aegis of producer Chris Price to aid the Illinois-born, Hawthorne, California-based Rhodes in his “comeback.” Members of Jellyfish (Roger Joseph Manning and Jason Falkner), The Bangles (Susanna Hoffs), Wilco (Nels Cline and Pat Sansone), and The Brian Wilson Band (Probyn Gregory and Nelson Bragg) have joined Fernando Perdomo, Taylor Locke, Jon Brion and Aimee Mann, among other equally impressive talents, on Rainbow Ends. Musically, the album isn’t a pastiche or recreation of Rhodes’ multi-layered, DIY sixties/seventies sound, though the talented cadre of musicians assembled certainly could have delivered on such a release. Though it conjures a late-1970s feel on occasion, Rainbow Ends is the sound of Rhodes today, with crisp, jangly guitars, and Price’s lean production adding its vocal and musical adornments sparingly but effectively.

The singer’s McCartney-esque burr is more burnished and world-weary now, sounding a bit like latter-day Warren Zevon with a dash of Jackson Browne. The voice is assured but still vulnerable on these compositions centered on the nature of heartbreak, a theme with which Rhodes is seemingly well-acquainted. Rhodes’ unerring gift of melody hasn’t abandoned him, as is evidenced by “Dog on a Chain,” the album’s catchy opening track. The upbeat pop arrangement – featuring shimmering lead guitar by Jon Brion, mellotron and clavinet from Roger Manning, guitar from Manning’s onetime Jellyfish bandmate Jason Falkner, and breezy SoCal harmonies from singers including Aimee Mann and producer Chris Price – beautifully contrasts Rhodes’ melancholy lyrical rumination on a divorce. Rhodes remains an inventive songwriter, keeping the listener alert with an unexpected mid-song pause and a sit-up-and-listen bridge. (That the chorus is infectious goes without saying.)

A not-unexpected current of sadness runs through Rainbow Ends; the chilling reflections of “If I Knew Then” (“The future is dark/And the way not clear/And your fate may be worse/Than you fear…”) are set to a bluesy rhythm (featuring Manning tickling the ivories) with just enough space to surge; “I Can’t Tell My Heart” is also painfully bleak (“I can’t tell my heart who to love/I can’t tell my heart what to feel/You can see why I don’t trust in love…”). Nels Cline of Wilco is responsible for the evocative lead guitar on the latter. But as he did so often on his early works, Rhodes can find beauty in the darkness. The pretty, McCartney-evoking “Isn’t It So” is sad and sweet. Subtle strings add to the track’s warm understated atmosphere. Whereas “Isn’t…” reflects on loneliness, the older, wiser Emitt finds some peace in it on “It’s All Behind Us Now.” He rides a slinky groove as he addresses an ex-lover with magnanimity on the touching but quirky tune.

Susanna Hoffs paid tribute to Rhodes when The Bangles recorded The Merry-Go-Round’s “Live” on their debut album; she joins in on harmony for the self-questioning Rhodes/Price co-write “Someone Else.” Rhodes also teamed with Don Mayer, Jim Rolfe and Matt Malley for a pair of tracks on Rainbow Ends. “This Wall Between Us” boasts soaring harmonies as well as strings and horns, the latter courtesy of the multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory. The Brian Wilson Band member shows up elsewhere on Rainbow Ends, including wielding a mean slide guitar on “Isn’t It So,” but his brass contributions are so strong that one wishes there were simply more of them! The second Rhodes/Mayer/Rolfe/Malley composition, “What’s a Man to Do,” provides a frank look at a conflicted relationship.

Roger Manning’s Fender Rhodes adds to the cool vibrations of the story-song “Friday’s Love,” perhaps the most rock-oriented track on Rainbow Ends. There are lighter moments, too, including “Put Some Rhythm to It,” the song in which Emitt implores listeners over a funky beat and cascading vocals to “shake your ass!” (And why not?) The gentle, happily upbeat and lightly percolating “Rainbow Ends” (featuring Gregory’s horns and Brian Wilson bandmate Nelson Bragg’s percussion) brings the LP to a close, leaving the listener wanting more from Rhodes, Price and company.

Rainbow Ends has been packaged on compact disc with customary care by Omnivore Recordings, with a handsomely designed digipak courtesy of Greg Allen and top-notch mastering from the team of Gavin Lurssen and Reuben Cohen. The enclosed booklet contains full lyrics. (A vinyl version – with download card – is also available from Omnivore.) Rhodes concludes his new album with the lyrics, “My eyes, they’re open now…” Our ears are, too. With a little bit of luck, it won’t take another 43 years for the next Emitt Rhodes album.

[jamestkirk]

For those who need an Emitt Rhodes primer...called "The one man Beatles", have a listen.
Emitt wrote all the songs, played all the instruments, recorded every track at home!
Yes, all four albums...in his home studio on is four track. No digital recording- no Apple Garage Band software - all analog - all great.

Recordings--48 tracks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U4otc7 ... KoZa_kP2_N

Emitt's debut album....floored me then, still does now!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3dAKkF ... mzDq1-H3Sh