Tré Burt - You, Yeah, You 27.08.2021

Tré Burt - You, Yeah, You 

Release date: Friday, August 27th 2021 - Thirty Tigers)

“Burt's wryly thoughtful songs roll along with an easy, lo-fi charm that never undercuts their propulsiveness.” - NPR Music

“Burt’s stories showcase a different, vivid and vital perspective in 2020” - Paste Magazine

“a songwriter holding fast to his heroes while crafting his own vision of the world around him.” - Folk Alley

“a powerful chorus of black voices shining a stark light on injustice in the long tradition of topical folk protest singing” - Rolling Stone on “Under The Devil’s Knee”

“it is easy to praise Burt's ability to capture cutting emotion in few words” - Exclaim!
Sacramento songwriter Tré Burt is announcing his sophomore album, You, Yeah, You, which was produced by Brad Cook and recorded at his Sound Pure studio in Durham, NC, today with the first single “Sweet Misery”. 

You, Yeah, You is a narrated collection of songs featuring a cast of invented characters; heroes, villains, those destitute of salvation, and those seeking it. The album represents a summoning of the will to fight the unknown rather than surrender to fear and fatigue. Like his late label mate and songwriting hero John Prine, Burt showcases his poet's eye for detail, surgeon's sense of narrative precision, and his songwriters' ability to transpose observation into affecting verse.

On the first single, “Sweet Misery”, the album title acts as an appeal and a call to action; “You, Yeah You / who else am I talking to”. Burt speaks both to himself and the listener, conjuring a fighter’s scrappy disposition. The protagonist fights his shapeshifting opponent in the form of Misery, a foe whose shadow has cast darker and harder to ignore in the past year. “There is something kinda beautiful about people who are experiencing tragedy in chorus,” Burt says. In this collective tragedy, he recognizes the bedrock to build something new, a deepened understanding of oneself in relation to one’s community, and a well of compassion. “Sweet Misery you can follow me down to the end of my path but you still gotta go through me”, Burt sings, reminding us that we, too, are the fighters who can hold our own in the ring against misery.

From his humble roots working menial day jobs; as a maintenance technician, servicing airplanes at SFO International, taping boxes as a UPS worker, Burt has been, and always will be, a working-class musician. His clear-eyed vision of America, its deep faults, and the beauty of the humanity that resides within its borders comes through with compassion and tenacity.

Tré wrote his protest anthem, “Under The Devil’s Knee”, which features Allison Russell, Sunny War, and Leyla McCalla, in the late summer of 2020 in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, and the unmitigated police violence across the country. His work caught the attention of scholars and activists, namely Dr. George Yancy, Dr. Cornel West, and Dr. Khalil Muhammad, and garnered an invitation to speak on a panel with the latter two at Harvard’s Kennedy School through Dr. Muhammad’s Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project.

Burt finds the exported packaging of Black culture en masse tiresome, claustrophobic, and boring, especially when applied to art and expression. Like literary writers Baldwin and Angelou, Burt acknowledges the limitless expanse of Black narrative. He is committed to the rich continuum of the tradition of Black expression claiming the space of artistic weirdness, often reserved for non-Black artists.

Tré Burt’s You, Yeah, You will be out on August 27th via Oh Boy Records and features Brad Cook on bass and synth, Phil Cook on keys and harmonica, Alex Farrar on lead guitar, Matt McCaughan (Bon Iver, Hiss Golden Messenger) on drums, percussions and modular synth, and features Amelia Meath (Sylvan Esso) and Kelsey Waldon on background vocals. 

Burt will be on tour this year including dates with Nathaniel Rateliff and Shakey Graves this summer, and this fall with Katie Pruitt. The album was produced by Brad Cook and recorded at his home and Pure Sound studio in Durham, NC. Find those tour dates below.

Benelux tour:

18 mei 2022 - Eeklo, N9 Villa
19 mei 2022 - Groningen, Der Aa-Theater
20 mei 2022 - Nijmegen, Merleyn
21 mei 2022 - Amsterdam, Paradiso
22 mei 2022 - Brussel, Le Botanique

For more information contact: Stefan.Hayes@v2benelux.com