John Leventhal - JL Hymn #2 (single)

JOHN LEVENTHAL  GRAMMY-WINNING SONGWRITER & PRODUCER TO RELEASE DEBUT SOLO ALBUM RUMBLE STRIP (OUT JANUARY 26)  HEAR TWO NEW SONGS:  “THAT’S ALL I KNOW ABOUT ARKANSAS” (FEATURING ROSANNE CASH We are delighted to announce Rumble Strip, the debut album from renowned and 6-time GRAMMY award-winning musician, producer, and artist, John Leventhal. The announcement comes with 2 IGs OUT TODAY: "That's All I Know About Arkansas" (feat. Rosanne Cash) and "JL's Hymn No. 2", along with an acoustic performance video of JL's Hymn No. 2.

 About the songs...

 That’s All I Know About Arkansas: My wife had these lyrics. I wasn’t sure what they were actually about but I loved them and they seemed to fit with a weird West African-Bluegrass riff I had. There are 2 distinct guitar solos, each a tip of the hat to 2 musicians to whom I owe a debt: Ry Cooder and Clarence White.

 

JL's Hymn No. 2: The second piece that came to me, written and recorded in the same evening. I’ve always loved a good hymn. A good one can look sorrow straight in the eye, and still leave you with some hope.

Bio:

John Leventhal -credit Josh Wool

Of the many hats John Leventhal has worn during his 45-year journey as musician—producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and recording engineer—”solo artist” has never been among them. That all changes with Rumble Strip, the six-time Grammy-winner’s debut album that showcases some of the most adventurous work of his career.

 Born in New York City, Leventhal began his career in the late 1970’s playing guitar in bands led by Billy Vera, Steve Forbert and Levon Helm. By the early 1980’s he had developed songwriting partnerships with Shawn Colvin and Jim Lauderdale which led to his producing their debut albums. This was followed by albums he produced for Rosanne Cash, Marc Cohn, Sarah Jarosz, William Bell, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Joan Osborne and many others. As a guitar player he has recorded and performed with Jackson Browne, Bruce Hornsby, Willie Nelson, The Tedeschi Trucks Band, Ry Cooder, Elvis Costello, Donald Fagen and recently, The National.

 Stuck at home during the disorienting months of the pandemic, Leventhal began a daily process of writing and recording. “I’ve always had a catalog of ideas that have never found a home,” he says. “In the back of my mind, I thought that one of these days I should try to harvest some of those ideas and confront the personal gauntlet of making a solo record. The world shutting down made it unavoidable.”

 That willingness to confront pays off handsomely on Rumble Strip, which combines Leventhal’s instrumental and studio prowess, informed by a wide-ranging musical sensibility.  Leventhal’s distinctive, lyrical guitar work has been featured on numerous albums, but he wasn’t interested in making a guitar record per se. Rumble Strip opens with otherworldly strains of piano, but also veers into full-band productions, solo guitar pieces and contemplative vocal performances. There are short pieces that draw on Leventhal’s love for classical music and Anglican hymns, but also humid blasts of Southern soul, country twang, and improvisation.

 For the handful of vocal tunes, Leventhal arranged some of his compositions that he felt deserved a shot at being on an album. “The Only Ghost” had been written for the late Dr. John, whose final album Things Happen That Way Leventhal mixed. The National’s Matt Berninger co-wrote “If You Only Knew,” which had originally been intended for him and Cash to sing, but here Leventhal imbues it with a hazy, West Coast cool. And Cash, Leventhal’s partner and frequent collaborator, shares vocal duty on the mysterious, percussion-heavy “That’s All I Know About Arkansas.”

John Leventhal -credit Wes Bender

Rumble Strip also heads down some interesting aesthetic rabbit holes. “Marion and Sam” references a musical cue from Bernard Herrman’s score for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, while “Who’s Afraid of Samuel Barber'' rearranges a piece of the titular composer’s Knoxville: Summer 1915 in a jammy, freewheeling style. Leventhal also takes an inventive approach to Aaron Copland by rearranging his Clarinet Concerto for solo guitar. “This is the way my brain works,” Leventhal says with a laugh. “I sussed out the orchestration and instead of clarinet, asked, ‘What if Duane Eddy played this?”

 That off-kilter sensibility is evident all over Rumble Strip. “Three Chord Monte” begins with gentle, folky acoustic guitar, but quickly shifts into a shuffling, dreamy country arrangement like the Nashville Sound filtered through David Lynch. The lovely piano chords of “Floyd Cramer’s Dream,” clash against one another in ways that feel unusual and unsettling before they eventually resolve. “I’m wired to need an unexpected, slightly jarring element in a song or composition, a surprise chord change or color, particularly in the middle of something beautiful”.

 Leventhal’s impulse to look for unexpected moments of beauty has served as a compass and survival tactic throughout his remarkable career. He’s been a Grammy winner in five consecutive decades, including as a co-writer and producer on Shawn Colvin’s 1998 smash “Sunny Came Home,” Cash’s moody The River and the Thread, and Stax legend William Bell’s sublime 2016 album This Is Where I Live. Presently, he’s collaborating with Cash on a musical version of Norma Rae. His unique approach hasn’t always aligned Leventhal with whatever is reaping the biggest commercial rewards, but he figures that’s probably the only way he could’ve done it. We’re all the luckier for it.