Greg Loiacono has not taken a minute of rest over the course of the last year. The venerable singer/songwriter and co-frontman of San Francisco’s Mother Hips has released an LP, Mystic Traces, as well as a handful of singles.
Loiacono and Jamie Drake have just share their duet “Bound To Fall” (below) across all streaming platforms via Blue Rose. Inspired by classic heartbreak songs of a bygone era, the evocative single calls to mind venerable 1950’s pop artists like Del Shannon, Ricky Nelson and Patti Page, While offering a handful of lyrical twists that clearly establish it as something modern. The recording marks the second collaboration between the two as they’d previously dueted on Loiacono’s 2019 single “San Felipe.” For this latest effort, however, they co-wrote the song together in March 2019 before recording it in Oakland, CA during the lockdown in summer 2020. In addition to Loiacono and Drake, the track features Wilco keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen.
“A few years back I had become obsessed with a recording called ‘Please Stay’ by The Cryin’ Shames. It inspired me to dive back into old records of singers singing heartbreak songs from way back. I hoped to convey that lonely, far away sound on this record,” says Loiacono. “Once Jamie and I started working on the song together we focused in on this unrequited love that drives the singer almost into a sense of delusion. It was really enjoyable finding ways to convey this through words and melody.”
“I think we’ve truly captured a specific, vintage, musical world in an authentic way,” adds Drake. “We were visited by a classic-feeling melody as we began to write and it brought a bit of magic to our session – along with plenty of failed relationship experiences to contextually pack into the lyrics. I remember laughing while suggesting the line about listening to Steely Dan and hearing saxophone play. It’s such a real detail and I’m sure someone out there will relate
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