Out now is the debut solo release from former Tiny Television and San Geronimo man Jeremy D’Antonio, Spinnin’ Wheels. He’s accompanied by musicians from the Buck Owens band (and ended up playing with Merle Haggard) which, according to Jeremy, “came to fruition because of studio owner John Macy and has been in the country music scene forever. He had all the guys coming out for a pedal steel convention and asked if I might be interested in cutting some Bakersfield style songs with them. It just happened that the songs I had been writing were right up that alley.”
The five songs that make up the EP are filled with this warm Californian honky-tank, all originals save for John Prine’s ‘Speed of the sound of Loneliness’ and it documents tales of sorrow, heartbreak, and melancholy generally. Opening track Sad and Lonely does what it says on the tin, with the heartbreak close to the surface as the track saunters along, decorated by pedal steels and drawn out melodies.
D’Antionio does a fine job of the Prine song, pulling it close to his own chest, but it’s the EP’s title track which is the jewel in the crown, this beautifully aching song of a disintegrated/ing relationship, with gentle organ and hints of strings alongside gorgeous backing vocals and a frankly lovely guitar solo to close it out.
There’s a familiarity to the old time country of Heaven Knows, which shows the quality of his songwriting and which also extends into EP closer ‘Crawlin’ out of my skin’ which details a songwriter of skill and elegance, who can spin stories and conjure images and wrap them all up in a wraught emotion that has you reaching for repeat.
Check it out, here
