Sara Rachele’s new LP, Scorpio Moon (out May 31st on Angrygal Records) was recorded live to tape in Brooklyn, N.Y., with Binky Griptite and other members of Amy Winehouse & Sharon Jones’ former backing band The Dap-Kings for all of the full live band recordings. Co-produced by Rachele and keyboardist Spencer Garn (Ruby Velle & the Soulphonics) and mixed by Atlanta-based engineer and Rachele bandmate Kristofer Sampson (New West Records band Ponderosa), the title track is a Dusty Springfield meets Cat Power lament in the form of a gypsy-jazz dirge, swooning between time signatures as a distinct Eastern European influence seeps through. With its warbling organ, and vintage New York tale, it’s a musical and lyrical homage to the roots of her father, an Italian/Slavic immigrant. The acoustic tracks were all recorded at Sampson’s home studio, who Rachele’s been working with for over a decade.
Rachele (pronounced ra-kelly) grew up a studio rat and folk child. Working for free, cleaning out the cupboards at famed Atlanta acoustic hotspot Eddie’s Attic, she met countless musicians and writers, and fell into bands as a side player before she’d even written a song of her own. She released her debut LP, Diamond Street, in 2014, and followed with a swoony 7-inch cover of Cracker’s “Low.”
Scorpio Moon is Rachele’s most sophisticated collection of songs to date, submerged in 60’s pop, country, folk, Americana and jazz. Velvet coos and wistful inflections hover above dreamy cadences, pervading the record with intimate details, while binding the troubadour’s timeless tales of impermanence and self-reflection. Rachele’s rendition of Dolly Parton’s, “I Will Always Love You,” is dedicated to her good friend, Tim Wilson, who went missing in Nashville in April of 2018, having mailed his belongings to his best friend in California–never to be seen again. “I didn’t know that kind of loss,” says Rachele. “He was an incredibly sweet individual, and just vanished into thin air.”
Glide is proud to premiere “Pages” -a self consciously luminescent track that provides an aching Emmylou Harris Wrecking Ball era quality. Featuring an atmospheric acoustic sound, Rachele provides a gritty directness that many artists elude confronting.
Rachele describes this self-reflexive “song about a song,” as breaking the songwriter’s fourth wall. “It’s a song dedicated to what I do as a solo artist. I just keep writing and writing and writing some more.”
Rachele has faced a fair share of malfunctions throughout the years, including recording to a tape machine that broke in the midst of Scorpio Moon. “I like being able to take different chances in different places,” she says. “We were using older gear, and it felt scary and deranged to be recording live to tape, which ended up breaking while we were still rolling and paying for time to fix it. New York is just colder, scarier and more expensive than Nashville or Atlanta, but there’s a particular style, flavor and culture that seems to capture everything all at once, if that makes any sense. It doesn’t matter what microphone you have. It’s all about the performance. That’s what makes a good album,” declares Rachele.
In part, Scorpio Moon is about relinquishing control, letting the chips fall where they may. “I found myself wanting to be in control of everything, even though we’re often handed things that are completely out of our control. You can read the tea leaves, and you can interpret the signs, but when God closes the door, don’t try and climb out the window. Granted, I’ve always been the kind of person to knock out all the walls in order to get what I wanted,” says Rachele. “I’ve since learned to be honest with the things you don’t necessarily like about yourself.”
Links & Socials…
https://www.facebook.com/sararachele/
https://twitter.com/SaraRachele_
https://www.instagram.com/rachelesong/
http://angrygalrecords.tumblr.com/
