Stunning instrumentals: each track on Smoke & Steel is one take, one guitarist, no overdubbing.
Bursting with searingly nasty blues, punkabilly, dazzling electronica and hauntingly ethereal melodies, each of track of Smoke & Steel is a chapter in a sonic memoir, detailing Ms. Crowe’s evolution from a classical guitarist into an electric fingerstyle player original.
Rotten Tomatoes & Cheap Socks is a tough, thundering bluesy romp that comes straight out of Ms. Crowe’s teen-aged forays to Maxwell Street in Chicago. Black Feather is a jaw-dropping track of guitar-based electronica fused with impressive fingerwork in a piece that sounds like Hendrix played underwater. Bats & Umbrellas was inspired by her stay at the U.K. estate that served as a hangout for Surrealist painters Dali, Magritte and May Ray in the 1930s. Leaves is a tender ballad which conveys a lyrical sensitivity in a track that soars and lingers.
This album heralds the arrival of a new, reigning guitar goddess unlike any other, with music that promises to leave guitar aficionados swept away by her intensity, dynamic range and raw emotional power.
Track Listing:
1. Smoke & Steel
2. Rotten Tomatoes & Cheap Socks
3. Black Feather
4. Bats & Umbrellas
5. Ace’s Four Vagabonds
6. Enniscorthy
7. Red Tug
8. Leaves
9. If Today Could Always Be New Year’s
10. The Road to Indio
11. Sid’s Swagger
12. Roses of Crimson Fire
13. Tennessee Turk
14. Pewter Sky
Smoke & Steel - Julia Crowe's Friend Space (Top 13)
Heyyyyyy, I wanna a copy o' Yo SMOK'n'STEELE personally autographed with a ssspppeeccciiiaaallllll dedication from YOU !!!! Gimme yo bank account numbah ...I'm gonna send you the bucks.
Should have left a comment here a while back, but of course you know what I think of your guitar playing and songs - purely Julia Crowe and so unique. I love it and wish you the best!
At last you have it finished! Well done! The music if fabulous and the artwork is brilliant. Great to hear those thundering Les Paul Chicago blues and then to chance upon those gentle floating 'Leaves'.
Many, many, blessings to you in your musical journey.
Hey!! It's going really well. Thanks for asking. I'm having a blast! We are having snow in NC, I love snow! Don't get that often in Houston!!!!! Take care!
