San Francisco singer-songwriter Graham Norwood has released the latest single from his debut album Out Of The Sea, a cover of Tim Hardin's "It'll Never Happen Again." Out Of The Sea will be released on January 31.
Listen and embed “It'll Never Happen Again” via YouTube:
https://youtu.be/JDp2kCFqR6Q
"I have this philosophy of doing covers; You shouldn't know a song too well," Graham tells Billlboard in an interview about the song and new album. "If I can get 80 percent familiar with a song and let my brain fill in the gaps, that's the best way to do it."
"I didn't tell the band beforehand we were gonna do this. I taught it to them myself, on the spot. I didn't play them the original recording. Nobody had any ideas of how it was to be played. We just went with it and came up with his something that's a bit of a twist on the [Hardin] original."
Graham earned his living as a sideman in New York City for most of his twenties before getting married and going to graduate school. When his marriage started to fall apart, though, he returned to New York for a trial separation, and instinctively found himself gravitating back towards music as a survival mechanism, as a way to work through the heartbreak and loneliness and confusion of it all.
Recorded with acclaimed producer/engineer Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Phish) and mixed by John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth), Norwood’s gorgeous and heart-wrenching debut, Out Of The Sea, represents just a fraction of the music he wrote during that tumultuous period. Norwood writes with a raw, unflinching honesty grappling with isolation, doubt, and depression as he artfully documents the long and winding journey to self-discovery and acceptance. It’s a journey that Norwood, who’s legally blind, has been charting for much of his life.
The album was recorded with an all-star band including bassist Dan Edinberg (The Stepkids, Anderson .Paak), pedal steel player Dan Iead (Norah Jones, Valerie June), vibraphone wizard Brittany Anjou (Okkervil River, Elysian Fields), and drummer Bill Campbell (Andrew Bird, Cass McCombs).
Norwood recently released “Greenfield,” the lead single from Out Of The Sea with Mother Church Pew commenting, “Awash in soaring strings and folk-centric melancholy, Norwood evokes the likes of Elliott Smith and Sufjan Stevens with double-tracked vocals and acoustic fingerpicking.” The track was also included in Pandora's October 2019 Pandora Picks playlist. Glide Magazine, said of the following single "Collapses To Zero" that, "Graham, who showcases both his folk singer side and his more soulful, with high octave vocals and far out harmonies, brings to mind the quieter side of Harry Nilsson with an indie rock sensibility."
Out Of The Sea tracklist:
1. Hard Times
2. Greenfield
3. Collapses To Zero
4. Lazarus Avenue
5. Kate’s Song
6. It’ll Never Happen Again
7. Ago
8. Out on the Shore
