Richmond Fontaine Inks w/Arena Rock for New LP

We loves us some Willy Vlautin ‘round these here Blurt parts...

By Blurt Staff

Richmond Fontaine have signed to the Arena Rock Recording Company and are set to release their eighth album, We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River, October 13^th.  The 14-track album was produced by JD Foster (Dwight Yoakam, Calexico) and engineered by Larry Crane (Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney) at Crane's celebrated Jackpot Studios in the band's hometown of Portland, OR.

A long-time critics' favorite, the band have been consistently showered with overwhelming praise throughout the years, specifically in the UK.  The Independent  stated that singer/songwriter Willy Vlautin was "nothing less than the Dylan of the dislocated," while UNCUT Magazine exclaimed that 2007's Thirteen Cities was "mind blowing...absolute perfection" and 2004's Post to Wire was "without a doubt, the best album of the decade."  With We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River, the band is reaching beyond the "Kings of Americana" tag given by the magazine in 2005 and finds the band at their peak both artistically and commercially.  Their sound has continued its decade-long evolution and is now fully realized, delivering their most interesting and accomplished musical performances to date.  UNCUT recently validated this with a perfect 5 out of 5 star review of the new album, describing it as "raw, autobiographical brilliance," while Q magazine mirrored the acclaim with a 4 out of 5 star rating. 

The birth of We Used To Think... began at the tail end of a year-long tour in 2007 supporting the band's Thirteen Cities album.  Two days before he was scheduled to return home, Vlautin's mother suddenly passed away, prompting the road-weary band to take a year's sabbatical.  After two months holed up at his home in rural Oregon and deep into an inspired writing streak, Vlautin was bucked off his horse and forced to spend months nursing a badly broken arm.  After finally being able to get back to writing, Vlautin emerged a year later with a new novel, Lean on Pete (to be released in 2010 via Harper Perennial) and twenty songs about love, heartache and loss that were paired down for the final record.  

In addition to being the songwriter and front man of Richmond Fontaine, Willy Vlautin is a critically-acclaimed novelist.  He is the author of The Motel Life (2006) and Northline (2008 - reviewed HERE by Blurt), both published by Harper Perennial in the US and Faber & Faber in the UK.  Movie rights to both novels have been optioned with Oscar-nominated screenwriter and award-winning director Courtney Hunt (Frozen River) slated to adapt and direct Northline. 

The core of the band remains Willy Vlautin (vocals, guitars), Sean Oldham (drums, vocals), Dave Harding (bass), and Dan Eccles (guitars).  For the recording sessions, the band also brought in family members and friends Collin Oldham (cello, cellomobo), Paul Brainard (pedal steel, trumpet), and Ralph Huntley (piano). 

Track Listing:

1. We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River

2. Northwest

3. You Can Move Back Here

4. The Boyfriends

5. The Pull

6. Sitting Outside My Dad's Old House

7. Maybe We Were Both Born Blue

8. Watch Out

9. 43

10. Lonnie

11. Ruby and Lou

12. Walking Back To Our Place at 3am

13. Two Alone

14. A Letter To The Patron Saint of Nurses