Mark Lanegan
Mark Lanegan returns to action with a new album, a UK tour and his memoirs and Getintothis’ Banjo brings the details.
Following 2019’s Somebody’s Knocking album, Mark Lanegan has announced news of a new solo album, Straight Songs of Sorrow, due for release 8 May on Heavenly Recordings.
The album features guest appearances from Greg Dulli, Warren Ellis, John Paul Jones and Ed Harcourt, amongst others.
Lanegan will also be playing UK live shows in May to support the album, including a date at Liverpool’s Invisible Wind Factory.
As well as the recording and touring, Lanegan has somehow found the time to write his memoirs, Sing Backwards and Weep.
The book recounts Lanegan’s journey from a troubled youth in eastern Washington, through his drug-stained existence amid the ’90s Seattle rock scene, to an unlikely salvation at the dawn of the 21st century
There are links between his new book and his new album, in that the 15 songs on Straight Songs of Sorrow are all inspired by parts of his life that he has revisited for his memoirs.
Lanegan says ““writing the book, I didn’t get catharsis, all I got was a Pandora’s box full of pain and misery I went way in and remembered shit I’d put away 20 years ago.
But I started writing these songs the minute I was done, and I realised there was a depth of emotion because they were all linked to memories from this book.
It was a relief to suddenly go back to music. Then I realised that was the gift of the book: these songs. I’m really proud of this record.”
Thankfully there is a happy ending to Mark Lanegan’s story. His book closes with him overcoming adversity and turning towards a new day.
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Straight Songs Of Sorrow echoes this and closes with Eden Lost And Found. “Sunrise coming up baby/To burn the dirt right off of me,” he sings, with his words echoed by Simon Bonney of Crime & The City Solution, a hero of Lanegan’s.
“I wanted to make a positive song to end this record, because that’s the way the book ended,” he says. “And what’s more positive than to have your favourite singer sing with you?”
Track List for Straight Songs Of Sorrow
- I Wouldn’t Want To Say
- Apples From A Tree
- This Game Of Love
- Ketamine
- Bleed All Over
- Churchbells, Ghosts
- Internal Hourglass Discussion
- Stockholm City Blues
- Skeleton Key
- Daylight In The Nocturnal House
- Ballad of the Dying Rover
- Hanging On (For DRC)
- At Zero Below
- Eden Lost And Found
Full UK tour dates:
May 12 – Brighton – Concorde 2
May 13 – Cardiff – Tramshed
May 14 – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
May 15 – Glasgow – Garage
May 17 – Liverpool – Invisible Wind Factory
May 18 – Norwich – Waterfront
May 19 – Oxford – O2 Academy
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