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"Four stars.
What
storytelling is
all about." -
Mojo
"Lacing folk
country and
Texan swing into
an gorgeously
inviting whole"
- Uncut
“I asked God for
a good job. He
put me on a
plane. All of
the people that
I love, the
people that I’m
from, are far
away.”
So begins
¡Don’t Hurry for
Heaven!,
the new record
from Virginia’s
Devon
Sproule.
Perhaps a hint
of homesickness
is
understandable.
Not only did Ms.
Sproule spend
much of the last
two years
touring abroad,
her new album --
produced by
husband Paul
Curreri and
featuring the
pedal steel
playing of the
legendary BJ
Cole -- was
recorded, for
the most part,
in England.
“Last year was a
good one,”
Sproule says,
“and full of
adventures. I
drove myself all
the way from
Scotland on the
left side of the
road for a radio
show. I learned
the intro to
“Johnny B.
Goode” before
8am in a Spanish
hotel. I even
smoked a J with
Lucinda Williams
and kept my
cool.”
“Musically,” she
continues,
“after a whole
summer of
festivals in the
UK, my band was
feeling great.
Everything was.
It wasn’t even
raining that
much! It
would’ve been a
shame not to
capture
something from
that time, to
let that phase
of our playing
evaporate into
the next. So we
booked this
studio out in
the country.”
Conveniently,
Sproule’s
husband, the
formidable
guitarist,
songwriter and
burgeoning
producer Paul
Curreri, was
about to cross
the pond for his
own European
tour. Curreri
flew over three
days early and
under his
direction, the
group tracked
eight songs at
Far Heath
Studios in
Northamptonshire.
“They had
donkeys and
ducks and
everything --
just like home!”
laughs Curreri.
“As for Dev’s
band, they were
tight when I got
there. I never
had to say, ‘Hey
mister drummer,
could you put a
bit more ruffle
in that rumba?
Cool, daddio.’
Instead, it was
just, ‘Great...
Let’s have a
beer and try one
a little slower,
a little
lazier.’” From
there, Curreri
brought the
tracks back to
the couple’s
home studio in
Virginia. A few
weeks later,
¡Don’t Hurry for
Heaven! was
complete.
Continuing in
the tradition of
her previous
works, ¡Don’t
Hurry for
Heaven!
sports a variety
of sonic
influences: the
title track -- a
tipsy, twangy,
spousal nudge --
wears a cowboy
boot on one
foot, and
another on its
head. The great
Jesse
Winchester,
a fellow
Southerner (and
hero of
Sproule’s),
makes a cameo on
the uber-groovy
“Ain’t That the
Way.” Sproule
and Curreri even
duet on a
left-field,
desert-bluesy
version of Black
Uhuru’s “Sponji
Reggae.”
At the record’s
thematic heart
is a young woman
longing for the
daily hiccups of
a balanced home
(“On a drive,
nowhere going, /
Gravel popping,
tape deck
whirring, /
Happy couple
talk a back
road, / Face a
thistle with a
backhoe”),
even while
lifelong dreams
are quite
literally coming
true around
her. The songs
are about her
friends, family,
herself, her
husband — or at
least versions
of them seen
through the lens
of geographical
distance. But
these character
sketches ring
bona fide; these
people seem
familiar. “I
had a river
growing up. I
had a pond. / I
had barely a
secret. And now
I have none.”
Sproule roots
for the home
team, and she’s
telling
everybody.
Sproule’s
domestic
leanings,
youthfulness,
and romantic
sense of humor
are deepened by
a hurling
undercurrent of
musical ambition
and multi-genre
awareness. The
album’s solo,
jazz-infused
closer, “A
Picture of Us in
the Garden,”
signs off with,
“Honey, how
are we supposed
to ever have us
a family / when
the business
won’t give us a
buck? / I
guess it’s lucky
I’m still pretty
young.”
Perhaps it’s her
effortless
delivery of the
deceptively
complex melody,
or her
charmingly
badass guitar
work, or the
economic poetics
of her pleading,
but the song
throws into
relief what lies
at the root of
all of these
compositions --
an infectious
vitality, a
desire to push
forward while
continuing to
love what got
you this far.
Sproule's
previous effort,
2007’s
Keep Your Silver
Shined
was called
“The sexiest,
sultriest
southern album
since Lucinda’s
“Car Wheels on a
Gravel Road” by
Paste
Magazine
and featured
singing from
fellow-Virginian
Mary Chapin
Carpenter.
Supporting the
record, Sproule
toured with
Woodstock legend
Richie Havens,
Lambchop
frontman Kurt
Wagner, and
supported
back-to-back
nights in London
with Lucinda
Williams
herself.
Sproule’s
breakout record,
Upstate
Songs,
was included in
Rolling
Stone's
Critics Top
Albums of
2003. In
December 2009 at
New York's
Lincoln Center,
Sproule was
awarded the
prestigious
Sammy Cahn Award
for her lyric
writing. She
was the first
American to
grace the cover
of fRoots
in the new
millennium, and
her appearance
on England’s
trend-setting
Later...With
Jools Holland
cocked the ears
of fans and
industry alike,
informing them
that yes, her
surname does
indeed rhyme
with “rock ‘n
roll.”
Born to hippie
parents on a
commune in
Kingston,
Ontario, Sproule
claims dual
citizenship with
both Canada and
the US. After
moving between
private, public
and home
schooling, she
eventually left
high school,
recorded her
first record,
and began
touring
nationally --
all before the
age of
eighteen. |
