Acclaimed singer-songwriter-producer-musician Scott Hirsch has announced today’s premiere of an exclusive new live in-studio acoustic performance video of his mesmerizing new single, “Dreamer.” Directed by musician/photographer Brendan Willing James at Hirsch’s Echo Magic in Ojai, CA, “Dreamer (Live In-Studio Acoustic Performance)” is streaming now via YouTube HERE. The official single version of “Dreamer” is available now at all DSPs and streaming services HERE.
“Dreamer” heralds the upcoming release of Hirsch’s eagerly awaited new album, WINDLESS DAY, due via Echo Magic Records with Soundly Music on Friday, October 8; pre-saves and exclusive vinyl pre-orders are available now HERE. A duet of sorts, “Dreamer” sees Hirsch exploring a deep well of emotion and sound joined by singer-songwriter Kelly McFarling, both accompanied on the new performance video by musicians Daniel Wright and Mikael Jorgensen.
WINDLESS DAY also includes the recently released singles, “Much Too Late” and “Spirit True,” both available now at all digital platforms. The latter track was met by praise from such influential outlets as Raven Sings The Blues, which wrote, “‘Spirit True’ sees Hirsch return to the JJ Cale cool that he’s wrangled in the past, shuffling into view on dive bar dancefloor drums, an afternoon sunset of sax, and Scott’s smoke ring sigh in the vocals. This one is a perfect after-work comedown that feels as refreshing as a cold drink on a hot day.”
A founding member of such groundbreaking bands as Hiss Golden Messenger and The Court & Spark, Scott Hirsch has spent much of the past half-decade gradually growing an acclaimed solo canon, staking his own visionary, deeply personal approach towards traditional American studio craft and songwriting. Hailed by the Chicago Reader as “an album of kaleidoscopic range and beauty that encompasses his varied interests,” 2016’s BLUE RIDER SONGS prompted Pitchfork to enthuse, “It’s taken a long time for (Hirsch) to let out his voice – a cool, soulful thing filled with deep reverence for his source material, if some cynicism about the myths it’s spun…On BLUE RIDER SONGS, Hirsch debunks the idea that redemption is ever a cakewalk, and finds something more truthful and lasting in the pursuit of accepting responsibility.”
Hirsch followed up two years later with LOST TIME BEHIND THE MOON, praised by Sungenre as “a genre-defying blend of all things Americana, showcasing Hirsch’s innate songwriting ability…a mixture of country, blues, folk-rock and psychedelic which come together to create something wholly different from the separate parts. It is moving and contemplative, bold and adventurous, whilst also delicate and sensitive.” LOST TIME BEHIND THE MOON “answers the question of what we might have gotten if Lou Reed had headed for Tulsa instead of Long Island when he bolted from the Velvet Underground,” declared MAGNET, while Pitchfork wrote, “There’s a new confidence here…These songs suggest that Hirsch has reached a destination, at least with his music: that he has arrived at a place where he is able to harness these sounds and allusions to convey the particulars of his wanderlust.” “LOST TIME INSIDE THE MOON bristles and broods,” raved Raven Sings The Blues, “and in the end is a salve and solace to lost souls…Hirsch’s vision of country elegance and barbiturate boogie hangs heavy on the diaphragm, groovin’ and singin’ in the same breath.”
Hirsch continues to work closely with Hiss Golden Messenger as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, and most recently, mixer on this year’s acclaimed QUIETLY BLOWING IT. The founder of Ojai, CA-based studio and sound design firm, Echo Magic, Hirsch received a 2015 GRAMMY® Award nomination for his work as engineer and mixer on folk music legend Alice Gerrard’s FOLLOW THE MUSIC. Other recent credits include collaborations with like-minded artists including Mikael Jorgensen, Orpheo McCord, Daniel Rossen, and William Tyler, the latter of whom recently wrote of Hirsch’s journey to WINDLESS DAY, “To the wandering soul, the promise of travel, the motion of the road, and necessary transience instills a love of the novel experience and fortifies the restless spirit. But when travel is no longer possible, when ‘the road’ becomes the familiar paths around your town and home, is there the time and space to create a new kind of journey? When else would we go inward, by choice or practice, then when the world shuts down around us and we are left with the thoughts and melodies in our heads?”
