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Son of the Velvet Rat, in partnership with the Ghost and the Machine (the professional alias of Austrian singer-songwriter Andi Lechner), follow up on the former’s 2024 standout album Ghost Ranch with a series of six digital singles, recorded live, to be released one a month beginning in March 2025. The songs feature a rawer, more immediate sound than previous recordings, with Lechner’s National resonator guitar often tuned down several steps to add an ominous underpinning to the music.
Son of the Velvet Rat divide their time between their home in Graz, Austria and Joshua Tree in California’s high desert. Their songs reflect a sonic landscape stretching from the Old World romanticism of Jacques Brel or Fabricio de Andre to the visionary realm of American balladeers like Bill Callahan or Michael Hurley. Lechner hails from Vienna, Austria, where aside from helming Ghost and the Machine, he is a much-in-demand session guitarist.
These songs were recorded live at Gar Robertson’s Red Barn Recorders in Morongo Valley, just down the hill from Joshua Tree, and produced by Altziebler and Lechner. Rounding out the rhythm section are fellow desert-dwellers Janie Cowan (Bob Dylan’s Shadow Kingdom) on standup bass and Danny Frankel (Lou Reed, Spain, She & Him) on drums and percussion.
Improvisation alternates with composed passages. The dynamic ranges from fragile folk to ferocious noise - with colors and transitions being hazy and obscured. The Red Barn Sessions capture the poetry created by the confluence of these blurry shades. (Paul Cullum)
Blue Ribbon
down a long flight of stairs to a place where the big fat lights don’t shine
we’ll light a big fat candle ‘cause it’s dark like a black hole in a coal mine
deep down in the belly of a ship that is sailing away
we can tell the mood of the ocean by the way our candle sways
awake & asleep & always aware of the dead
& the language they use when they speak deep in your head
sometimes it’s a whisper, sometimes it’s a storm in your soul
‘cause when they speak, they speak in a rant that you can’t control
but what a sweet thing when it dawns on you
that your love’s really your best friend
makes you feel like you’re winning the blue ribbon
without having to sail to world’s end
all those painted faces smiling down from the planks above
they came to reveal the secret conjunction of loss & love
& if you can’t really seem to understand what they are trying to say
it will be coming to you with the logic of the flow that brings the new day