Lost at Sea: Rarities, Outtakes and Tales from the Deep is Howlin Rain’s grand three-LP, 15-track archival statement to be released November 29th on Silver Current Records. The more than 90 minutes of music contained within—almost exclusively never before released and previously unheard tracks—traces the band’s jagged path through outrageous highs and lows over nearly two decades.
Boasting a broad cast of musical characters, Lost At Sea includes contributions by Rick Rubin (Producer/American Records), Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars), Scarlet Rivera (Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue), Joel Robinow (Once and Future Band), Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless/The Black Crowes), Tim Green (Producer, engineer, musician) and many more. The collection also includes Howlin Rain's singular reinvention of songs by The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Leon Russell and Neil Merryweather.
"I wanted to compile the record so it would have impact like our grandest, wildest, most unabashed studio album," Miller says. "I left out home demos, and songs from quiet corners, sketches, etc., in favor of fully formed, fully finished, studio level tracks from front to back. Lost at Sea is intended to be something that you can pour yourself into and get swept away in."
20 years on from its inception, Howlin Rain has been up and down all kinds of unlikely roads. The band was formed in 2004 with their first record released in 2006. Under the watchful eye of bandleader and caretaker Ethan Miller (Comets on Fire, Heron Oblivion, Feral Ohms and label boss of Silver Current Records), the group has by design hosted a roving cast of players, including members of The Black Crowes, Heron Oblivion, Comets on Fire, Interpol, Earthless, Once and Future Band, Drunkhorse, The Seeds and Sunburned Hand of the Man. They've released six EPs, five official live albums and six studio albums, including The Russian Wilds, a sprawling double album, four years in the making with, and for Rick Rubin’s American Recordings, and The Alligator Bride, which was one of the earliest releases on Miller’s Silver Current label.
Over the years the Howlin Rain recording vault began to swell with compelling material that had been left on the shelf for a variety of reasons. Miller began to put his ear toward an archival set to see what these spare parts could be all together. Thus, Lost at Sea was born.
The album's first single "Down a Drain" (Listen/Share HERE) is an outtake from 2012’s The Russian Wilds. A sonically detailed and melodic, cinematic rocker reminiscent of peak AOR of the '70s by the likes of Thin Lizzy and Todd Rundgren. Keyboardist Joel Robinow’s spiraling Hammond B-3 and dancing Clavinets, layers of Miller’s harmonized fuzz guitars and Raj Ohja and Cyrus Comiskey’s thundering rhythm section float, fly and ultimately come crashing down in technicolor in Tim Green’s exquisite production along with he and Rick Rubin’s larger-than-life mix.
Other highlight tracks include "Burn Down” an outtake from 2021’s The Dharma Wheel. A super-charged folk rock tale of small town disaster featuring Scarlet Rivera of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue on violin.
Lost at Sea includes a handful of notable covers including The Russian Wilds outtake and Leon Russell tune “Out in the Woods” which includes the supernatural sounding slide guitar of Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars) and the transcendent Live Rain outtakes "Here Comes Sunshine" by the Grateful Dead and “Shine a Light” by The Rolling Stones, the latter capturing some of the final moments The Russian Wilds' incarnation of the band would ever play together, performed live on New Year’s Eve 2012 in San Francisco.
Also of note are three tracks from the never released Ethan Miller Band album, a nearly finished full record made in late 2011 with the Once and Future Band rhythm section of Eli Eckert and Raj Ojha while awaiting the long-coming release of Howlin Rain’s second major label album The Russian Wilds.
"This collection holds the sounds and musical work of all kinds of people from my past and present; from Rick Rubin, to some of the musicians who have had the biggest influence on my musical life, to folks I’d nearly forgotten I’d played with and have never seen again since the moments you hear on these recordings. In some weird way, we were all in this thing together, and now here’s a document putting the behind-the-scenes of this extended project in perspective." Miller concludes.
Lost at Sea: Rarities, Outtakes and Tales from the Deep releases November 29th, 2024 on 3-LP, 2-CD and digital on Silver Current Records. Pre-order available HERE.
HOWLIN RAIN
Lost at Sea: Rarities, Outtakes and Tales from the Deep
Track Listing:
1. Brawler Theme
2. Down a Drain
3. Burn Down
4. Speed (Heat & Light)
5. Beyond the New Age
6. Here Comes Sunshine
7. Hot .22
8. The Border
9. Shine a Light
10. Hollywood Boulevard
11. Out in the Woods
12. Misery
13. Pride in a Cold Wind
14. Lady of the Sky
15. Kiss the World Goodbye
