About this Event

Please Please You presents Mark Eitzel & Band (American Music Club) + Sacri Cuori



The Duchess, York. Wed. 16 Oct. 7.30pm. £14adv/£16otd.



Mark Eitzel's new UK tour for his album Don't Be a Stranger (décor records) kicks of this October at the London Southbank on Oct 13th. Don't Be A Stranger has already been heralded as his best solo album of the last 15 years and Mark will be touring the UK with a full band including stops in Nottingham, Manchester, York, Brighton, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Oxford.



After a string of bad luck that included a heart attack in May 2011 that set him back several months and the implosion of his band American Music Club, Mark Eitzel fortuitously found himself in the studio with celebrated producer Sheldon Gomberg (Rickie Lee Jones, Ron Sexsmith, Ben Harper), thanks to the generosity of a an old friend who had just won a massive lottery win and funded the album project. The result is Eitzel's finest solo album in over a decade. Mark says, "I wanted to make an album more reminiscent of records like Harvest by Neil Young or Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake than anything I've previously done."



Mark Eitzel has released over 15 albums of original material with his band American Music Club and as a solo artist. The Guardian has called him "America's Greatest Living Lyricist" and Rolling Stone once gave him their Songwriter of the Year award. Originally formed in 1983, American Music Club released seven albums before breaking up in 1995 and finally reuniting in 2004 for two more albums.



His live set consists of a mixture of songs from his rich catalog, including selections from American Music Club as well as newer material. Mark has promised to bring out some rare tracks he has not performed live for over 20 years. Mark's touring band will consist of piano, bass, guitar and drums but he also plans to "bring the chaos" in the form of his electric guitar. Renowned for his self-deprecating sense of humor, Mark's live shows are always unique and unpredictable in the best possible way.



'If Leonard Cohen's voice is a story about the passage of time and Levon Helm's is a story about losing what is most precious to you, Eitzel's is about the circuitous roads we take in search of ourselves.'



Pitchfork



'Don't Be a Stranger is full of sumptuous, understated detail - low-key backing vocals, humming organs, swooning strings, ambience-boosting blasts of electric guitar - that rewards repeated listens. Not that this material requires any sugar-coating to convince'



The Line of Best Fit



'An underappreciated, misunderstood, great American songwriter.'



UNCUT



'He can sum up life's sorrow, suffering and surreality in ways that are personal, universal and precise.'



Mojo



In support, from Romagna in northern Italy, are the fabulous Sacri Cuori. The band is led by guitarist/producer Antonio Gramentieri and plays instrumentally topographical music that mirrors the terrain they actually experience, whether it be a Rimini beach full of nostalgia and desire or the Mojave desert in the dead of winter: cold as the truth the dream makers never want you know.



In addition to Antonio, Sacri Cuori is Francesco Giampaoli on bass and Christian Ravaglioli on keyboards. Rosario features guests Isobel Campbell singing her finest Nancy and Lee moment, Jim Keltner (Beatles, Dylan, etc), Joey Cavortion (Calexico, Giant Sand) JD Foster (Green on Red) David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Marc Ribot (Tom Waits etc), Stephen McCarthy (Long Ryders) Woody Jackson and a host of others. This album follows on from their first album Douglas and Dawn (gussstaff records) which featured Howe Gelb, Calexico, James Chance and John Parish.



'Imagine an Italian Calexico specializing in instrumentals and you get a sense of the cinematic strum and twang of Romagna's Sacri Cuori, Somewhere between Cinecittà and Monument Valley. Molto bene.'



UNCUT 8/10



'Rosario: the best Italian contender (ever?)'



NO DEPRESSION



'All the cinematic suspense of those hyper-reality films'



Q