Dan Wilson cut his teeth with those seminal college-rock faves Trip Shakespeare way back when (i.e. the late ’80s/early ’90s), then fronted Semisonic, who ostensibly bowed out in 2001, but more recently he’s known for penning other folks’ tunes — he nabbed a 2007 Grammy for the Dixie Chicks’ “Not Ready To Make Nice” and co-wrote a bunch of other songs on their Taking the Long Way. Not taking post-Grammy life lightly, the Minneapolis songsmith just finished his solo studio debut Free Life, though it’s tough saying “solo” when you start counting the guest appearances: Sheryl Crow, Tom Petty pianist Benmont Tench, and folks from N*E*R*D and Nickel Creek, etc. Wait ? N*E*R*D?
Another guest, the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, lends an icy guitar licking to the lonely and bummed but ultimately triumphant piano ballad “Cry.” Dig the shakers, those bubbling hand drums and the escalating, string-laced exit coupled with Wilson’s crystal croon.
Cinematic, sad, empowering ? we bet this’ll be a hit in karaoke bars everywhere.
While we’re talking Wilson, check out dude’s blog and keep him some company.
Free Life is out 10/16 on American.
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“folks from NERD” means Spymob, the Minneapolis band that played all of the instruments on the album. I don’t think Chad Hugo is on Dan WIlson’s album.
Dan Wilson was pretty impressive with Semisonic, especially their later, more adventerous records. Any more music by solid songwriters in his vein is always nice to hear
wow, i had no idea dan wilson was in semisonic. i lived and breathed “lulu” by trip shakespeare in high school, but after they stopped releasing records it never even occured to me that some of the band members might move onto other endeavors. guess i’ll have to give semisonic a second listen…
More Dan music on his Myspaz
http://www.myspace.com/danwilsonmusic)
Remove the parenthesis in above link and it will work.
Lost iterest in Semisonic fairly quickly, but also knew Wilson was the man even still. Will def check this new stuff. I’ve heard the Dixie Chicks record is realy good.
Great stuff!
I had no idea he wrote that Dixie Chicks song. It is a truly powerful song, and obviously written specifically for them.
“I made by bed, and I sleep like a baby,
With no regrets and I don’t mind saying,
It’s a sad sad story
That a mother will teach her daughter
that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.
And how in the world
Can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Saying that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over”
The first two full length Semisonic albums are among my favorite albums, and “Closing Time” (while some may find it overplayed) is one of the best pop songs of the 90′s.
So we’re all gearing up for the release of this album Oct. 16th – I just love it when veteran artists provide their listeners with a vacation from mediocre music.
Here’s something neat, Newbury Comics is giving away limited autographed lyric booklets if you pre-order the cd on their website – here’s the link for that
http://www.newburycomics.com/rel/v2_home.php?storenr=103&deptnr=496&affnr=790