ARTIST: Sean Hayes
TITLE: Flowering Spade
LABEL: Self Released
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 170kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 48m total
RELEASE DATE: 2007-06-05
RIP DATE: 2007-05-23
Track List
----------
1. All For Love 3:52
2. Midnight Rounders 3:43
3. Time 2:52
4. Hip Kids 5:46
5. Dolores Guerrero 6:32
6. Cool Hand 2:47
7. Baby I Do 4:06
8. Onion 3:47
9. Penniless Patron 3:16
10. Sally Ann 1:24
11. Sufidrop 3:08
12. Elizabeth Sways 3:20
13. Flowering Spade 4:17
Release Notes:
Much like the man himself, Sean Hayes' musical sensibilities defy easy
categorization. Just because there's a banjo featured in a track, don't expect
it to sound Appalachian -- and certainly don't expect that recurring tuba to
have anything to do with Sousa and his severely metered marches. With his new
album "Big Black Hole and the Little Baby Star", the North Carolina-bred, San
Francisco-rooted artist continues to embrace the multifarious, channeling Billie
Holiday in her more melancholy moments (Fucked Me Right Up) or hitting the
pavement with broken-hearted, wild eyed friends who take strength in numbers
(Calling All Cars). With subject matter that ranges from polka dot panties to
innocent death row inmates, it's best to keep an ear cocked to sort out Hayes'
lyrics. A masterful songwriter and fingerpicker, the singer plays guitar,
mandolin, and banjo on the album.
Etienne de Rocher mans the piano, bass, keyboards and backup harmony vocals, and
Ches Smith supplies percussion. Ara Anderson, who's added his horns to Tom
Waits' and Jolie Holland's albums, adds some powerful oomph on trumpet and tuba.
Hayes says that the process for getting this fourth record together has been
"totally organic - - it has to do with time, and how the sound changes because
of it, as well as with the people you play with."
A little over a year ago, while playing a warehouse show for local arts and
culture mag Kitchen Sink, Hayes bumped into fellow musician de Rocher. It was a
fortuitous meeting. De Rocher invited Hayes to record a few songs at his garage
studio, and Hayes eventually recorded the whole of Big Black Hole there. Thanks
in part to de Rocher's production, the album's sound is a departure from his
previous discs. Now, Hayes sounds a little less folky, a little more languid and
groovy, as if he loosened the knot on his hobo tie after tossing back a few Don
Julios -- a better approximation of his live shows...