On October 6 singer-songwriter Tré Burt will release his 3rd studio album, Traffic Fiction, via Oh Boy Records. The album’s 14 tracks mark an unexpected musical reinvention, rooted in Burt’s new and idiosyncratic version of classic soul. At the same time the LP also preserves the special relationship Tré shared with his grandfather who passed away earlier this year – this was the music the two shared. Along with today’s announcement, Tré Burt shares the LP’s lead single, the jubilant “Santiago,” which recounts an overseas tryst that ended too soon. On the track Burt narrates moments of mirth and lust over go-go keyboards and a beat so simple and propulsive The Ramones would have loved it. He says, “The song actually started out as a writing prompt that my friend gave me over the phone during my solo writing retreats at the cabin. She said ‘write about Santiago’ and it ended up being a good stage to talk about some heartache I was going through. But it wasn’t just heartache, there was also a lot of joy which is why it sounds upbeat, I guess.” A video for the single was shot by Charles Garmendia.
Traffic Fiction is the follow up to 2021’s You, Yeah, You, his sophomore album and one where bits of his roots and compositional ambitions began to emerge. On Traffic Fiction, they are in full bloom, from the sweet country-soul surrealism of the title track to the skywriting rock of “2 For Tha Show,” Burt as urgent and commanding as he’s ever been. Traffic Fiction is the sound of Burt confidently bending a sentimental past to his present will.
To get to this new alchemy of soul, dub, and more than a little punk, Burt returned to the basics—self-recording in sequestered silence. During a Canadian tour, he set aside a few days to stay in a friend’s spare apartment and write, renting enough instruments from the affordable gear emporium Long & McQuade to build a makeshift studio for his GarageBand demos. The title track soon emerged, its effortless magnetism prompted by a poem he’d written about stupid city congestion and a piece by saxophonist and singer Gary Bartz.
Burt recognized he had found the sound of the next album, so he booked another rural cabin in Canada for 9 days and rented more guitars, basses, and the same keyboard he’d bought during the You, Yeah, You sessions. For the better part of a lifetime, Burt had told himself he didn’t have the chops to sing like those childhood heroes from the Cadillac days. But now, as he built his one-man-band demos before returning to Nashville’s The Bomb Shelter to work with a trusted band of pals and esteemed producer Andrija Tokic, his versions of those sounds poured out in circumspect love songs and joyous tunes of existential reckoning. His grandfather was dying. The world was struggling with a pandemic and the specter of a third world war. But Burt gave himself permission to have fun and be funny, to let these songs lift him and, eventually, maybe others, too. Traffic Fiction indeed feels like a buoy amid these turbulent times, something that pulls us above the wreckage.
At three points during Traffic Fiction, Burt interweaves bits of recorded conversations with his late grandfather, Tommy. They talk about Stevie Wonder, Burt’s career and the fatigue it can bring, and, finally, the sense that he’s carrying on a family tradition through these records. It’s a reminder not only of what Burt experienced while making Traffic Fiction but also of what he overcame. He found strength in the soul of his youth, and, for that, he’s never sounded stronger.
Tracklisting
- Play Stevie Wonder
2.Traffic Fiction
- Kids in tha Yard
4.Piece of Me
- Win My Heart
- I’m Aight Pops, Just Tired
- All Things Right
- To Be a River
- Told Ya Then
- Wings for a Butterfly
- Santiago
- 2 For Tha Show
- Yo Face
- BNB Maintenance, Inc
Tré Burt tour dates
9/23: Healing Appalachia – Lewisburg, WV
10/7: Los Angeles Folk Festival at The Ford – Los Angeles, CA
10/9: Songbyrd – Washington, DC
10/10: Johnny Brenda’s – Philly, PA
10/11: Baby’s All Right – Brooklyn, NY
10/13: Higher Ground – Burlington, VT
10/14: 939 Cafe – Boston, MA
10/15: Billsville House Concerts – Manchester, VT
10/17: Petite Campus – Montreal, QC
10/18: Monarch Tavern – Toronto, ON
10/19: Magic Bag – Ferndale, MI
10/20: SPACE – Chicago, IL
10/21: Racoon Motel – Davenport, IA
10/22: Turf Club – Minneapolis, MN
10/24: Cactus Club – Milwaukee, WI
10/26: Bishop Bar – Bloomington, IN
11/2: Blue Room at Third Man- Nashville, TN
11/3: Vinyl- Atlanta, GA
