Our friend Bill Frater of Freight Train Boogie featured a few songs from Sky Blue DeVille on a recent episode. Check it out and link to the podcast on No Depression.
Thanks also to Chris Hassiotis for his intent listening and thoughtful review of the new album in Georgia Music Magazine. It’s in the Spring 2013 issue, available here:
“Athens songwriter Adam Klein is both a rambler and a hometown boy, and those opposing forces come into play on his fifth album, Sky Blue DeVille. Backed by his band The Wild Fires [Steve Abercrombie (bass), Crash Cason (electric guitar) and multi-instrumentalist and drummer Bronson Tew], Klein peppers his lyrics with specific references to places, towns and streets. It’s an easy way for him to translate his wanderlust into his folk- and country-influenced songs. Klein has recruited some top-notch Georgia talent for Sky Blue DeVille, which was recorded at Watkinsville’s Full Moon Studio. David Blackmon (Widespread Panic, Blueground Undergrass) contributes fiddle to “Goodnight Nobody”, giving the big-city-blues tune a mournful vein laced through its guitar solos and robust horns. Ike Stubblefield (Marvin Gaye, Al Green, B.B. King) backs Klein on Hammond B3 organ while Randall Bramblett lends his considerable organ, piano and sax skills throughout the album. It’s a more full sound for Klein, who has tended toward the solo acoustic in the past, though he’s also released several West African-influenced albums (Klein spent years in Mali as a Peace Corps volunteer). Klein introduces numerous characters throughout Sky Blue DeVille (“Jesse’s Mind” is written from the perspective of outlaw Jesse James’ mother, and the title track puts itself in the mind of Elvis Presley), but the one consistent strain is that of Klein yearning for something- either more adventure, more comforts of home, or both.”- Chris Hassiotis