BLUE CRANES MY ONLY SECRET

SIDE A

1. Sloan (6:31) 2. Semicircle (4:17)

3. Forward (7:03) 4. Gaviota (3:48)

SIDE B

5. Rhododendron (6:17) 6. Sandbox (4:22)

7. A Night in Montavilla (3:20)

8. Lonely Coyote (4:34)

Keeping a band together, particularly among the mercurial community of jazz musicians, is no small feat. Other gigs beckon. Life outside of making art takes precedence. It’s a reality that makes the continued existence and progression of Portland quintet Blue Cranes feel so momentous. The ensemble — saxophonists Reed Wallsmith and Joe Cunningham, drummer Ji Tanzer, keyboardist Rebecca Sanborn, and bassist Jon Shaw — has been working together in a variety of formats since 2004, creating a solid body of work that has connected them to both the traditional sounds and the future-minded artists of their chosen genre.

A major shift for the band was to change the way they recorded My Only Secret . Created during the height of the quarantine, Blue Cranes altered their usual way of recording out of necessity, tracking each part separately and in duets across the studio window in Wallsmith’s basement. With some help from longtime cohorts Jason Powers and Todd Sickafoose, Wallsmith built the songs up using the individual components, usually adding Tanzer last in the process, because, he notes, “Ji is such an expressive player and is so in the moment, reacting to what’s happening. I felt like we’d lose all that otherwise.” Even with this temporal separation, says Cunningham, “it was like we were responding to each other. There was communication happening in the same space but at different times. And somehow it sounds like we’re playing live in the same room.”

What will always stay the same with Blue Cranes no matter how much they change as people, as players and as composers is the vibrant emotional core within the music they create. Each song on My Only Secret has a core memory attached to it, whether it is the birth of a child (“Sloan”), a parent’s comfort after the death of a beloved pet (“Rhododendron”), or the agony of the 2016 election results (“Forward”). They feel every moment of every song deeply, something which colors every note they play. “We’re a good emotional band,” says Cunningham. “We can go to that place.” The beauty of My Only Secret, like all of the work Blue Cranes has produced to date, is that they want anyone and everyone to join them.

LP-JBR-235LE

CD-JBR-235

THE BUILDERS AND THE BUTCHERS S/T

SIDE A

The Night Pt. 1

Red Hands

Spanish Death Song

Black Dresses

Bottom Of The Lake

The Gallows

SIDE B

Bringin' Home The Rain

The Coal Mine Fail

Slowed Down Trip To Hell

The Night Pt. 2

Ten Miles Wide

Find Me In The Air

• Limited edition COLOR pressing on GOLD vinyl

LP-JBR-0105C

Chock full of junk store percussion, is this to be considered inspired by call and response old time Gospel, or is it the Gospel for modern folk pop lovers? This inspired recording of strings, mandolin, drums, "whatever you can get your hands on" percussion, guitars, banjo, bass, organ, and open vocal harmonies, is deceptively loose-sound sounding on first listen. As the listener dives deeper into the record it becomes pretty apparent that this musical mongrel of a band is pretty precise, but feels like it was hewn from dirt of the land, and sounds ragged and burnt from a lifetime of tilling. The lyrics are slyly smart, artfully sinister, and built for audience participation... and while the rolling high end mandolin and banjo pluck their ways through countermelodies, there's that perfectly tattered jumble of percussion that sets the knee to bouncin' and the hands together to clap along. Find the lot of players in front of a crowd that is jubilantly singing along with the backing chorus, and you'll find the whiskey drinkers, beer swillers, the devoted Tom Waits fans who wish they could get as close to him as they can to this band. This record was incredibly fun to record.

Singer/guitartist, Ryan Sollee moved to Portland, OR in the fall of 2003 from Alaska with his band at the time The Born Losers, which played a mix of rock and roll and punk. Feeling inspired by the blues, county and gospel music he was listening to, Sollee formed The Builders And The Butchers with other eclectic and like-minded musicians he had met around Portland.

The Builders And The Butchers practiced a few times and played their first shows during the Halloween weekend of 2005. With little expectations, the band was surprised that after only a few shows people were singing along and responding passionately to their music. A lot of these first shows were played downtown outside of bars and clubs.

Press Quotes

“The Builders and the Butchers initially turned heads with their immersive performance style—employing singing in the round sans mic, recruiting the crowd as back-up vocalists, traipsing off into the street in the middle of the closing song. But shorn of the theatrics, the band’s music easily holds its own. The record traces the course of a traditional Butchers set, from stripped-down crowd-grabbing opener “The Night, Pt. 1” to lovely sing-along gospel closer “Find Me in the Air.”

– WILLAMETTE WEEK (Best Local Albums of 2007)

“The original intention of the Builders and the Butchers was to make funeral music, but on the way to the cemetery something changed. Instead of heads hanging low and mournful elegies to the deceased, this local ensemble turned the funeral plot into a graveside party by way of the junkyard. Liberally grabbing from bluegrass, country, and punk—armed with just about any instrument they came across—this band has accidentally stumbled upon something incredible: a very distinctive and interactive way to create and present music.”

– PORTLAND MERCURY

Release Information: EIS008-C1

Genre: Indie, Rock

Configuration: LP -Purple Inside Clear Vinyl Street Date: 8.11.2023

Vinyl UPC: 843563163283

Vinyl Box Lot: 40

Key Markets: New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia