Bow Thayer and Perfect Trainwreck will release their new album, Eden, on March 5.
Written almost entirely on electric banjo, the album fuses experimental elements with Americana, rock, bluegrass and folk, resulting in a unique sound that has earned the Vermont-based band heaps of praise, not to mention descriptions ranging from “Green Mountain soul” to “modern backwoods music.”
Today, GuitarWorld.com brings you the exclusive premiere of "Wreckoning," a track off the new album. You can hear it below.
The album is co-produced/engineered by Justin Guip, who won three Grammys for his work with Levon Helm of The Band. Helm even played drums on Thayer's Spend It All album. Thayer was invited to perform six times at Helm’s Midnight Ramble concerts.
This album marks Thayer’s third with Perfect Trainwreck, a band featuring — in addition to Thayer on vocals, banjo and guitar — Jeremy Curtis (bass/vocals), Jeff Berlin (drums), James Rohr (piano/organ/keyboard) and Chris McGandy (pedal steel guitar).
“Not many people move to Vermont to pursue a career in music. But for me, it felt right, because the most important thing for me was to be able to write with my own voice,” Thayer says. “Because Vermont is so isolated and rural, I feel like I’m looking at society as an outsider, which is a big part of my perspective on this record. It also feels like we are in a bubble trapped in time in many ways. It’s beautiful and weird.”
Eden is Thayer’s first album of new material since Bottom of the Sky, which charted on the Americana Music Association’s Top 100 Albums and the Roots Music Report’s Top Rock Albums charts of 2011.
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Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
