Mason Jennings will release his first live album, Live At First Avenue on August 24th via Stats & Brackets. The live album was recorded during the last night of his fall 2009 Blood Of Man tour from the prestigious First Avenue venue in his hometown of Minneapolis, MN. The album features three unreleased songs: “Born”, “Grow Old With Me,” and “My Computer Screen.”
Jennings latest release comes almost a year after his critically acclaimed and self produced Blood Of Man 2009 LP. Rolling Stone gave the album 4 stars, calling it his “Best Album Yet” and said, “What Makes Mason Jennings one of the best acoustic-based singer-songwriters you’ve never heard of is his ragged, intimate voice and simple ruminations of God, war, hope and gratitude.”
In addition to the live record, Jennings will release a new album this September. The Flood is a15-song record featuring once lost and unrecorded songs that he has written over the past 18 years.
"Last winter an old friend asked me about a cassette tape filled with songs that I had given her fifteen years ago. She said she had lost it and was wondering if I had a copy. I called my Dad and he found a box of old recordings in his basement and sent them to me. The tape she was talking about was in there as were a bunch of other ones spanning the last eighteen years. Some were 4 track recordings, some were just recorded into an old voice recorder from Radio Shack. Some of the songs were songs that I have since recorded on my CDs but most were unreleased and many were a complete surprise to me.
I listened to them all and thought it would be fun to re-record some of them to keep them from getting lost again. I decided to do it with just guitar and voice so the songs would be the center point and they would feel cohesive even though they were written over the course of eighteen years,” says Mason about recording The Flood.
In support of both Live At First Avenue and The Flood Jennings will tour California on an intimate four-date run including two nights at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles, CA.
Tour Dates:
July 31st St. Paul, MN Lowertown Music Fest
September 10th San Francisco, CA Yoshi’s
September 12th Arcata, CA Van Duzer Theater
September 14th Los Angeles, CA Largo at the Coronet
September 15th Los Angeles, CA Largo at the Coronet
September 16th San Diego, CA San Diego Woman’s Club
