MORE ABOUT PONDERING JUDD
In September 2005, Pondering Judd released Lonesome Heart Strangers, a musical declaration seeded with a song-first approach put forth by such roots rock greats as Gram Parsons and Steve Earle. Strangers comes close on the heels of Pondering Judd’s seven-song acoustic predecessor, Succumb to Hell, released in February 2005, adding to the prolific track record established by the band over a decade ago. PJudd’s latest features many collaborative works involving the two-headed songwriting monster of Martin England (acoustic guitar, lead vocals) and Hank Decken (baritone, pedal steel, lap steel), and is an emotionally-charged, high-energy affair that takes the listener through the fires of love, life and loss. Strangers also features the musical prowess of Steve Jacques (drums), Mark Edgerly (guitar), and bassist Brian Gosselin. Together, PJudd continue to blur the lines between country, folk, and rock. “Americana has hope in these men, and we have hope that there is still good music such as this out there waiting for our ears.” -Daniel J Lavagna, Northeast In-Tune Magazine
Lonesome Heart Strangers is Pondering Judd’s fifth release, and features eleven tracks, each possessing its own unique identity and soul. Strangers also features an arm’s length of serried characters and their stories. Lyrically, the songs are best described as auto-fiction, a intelligent mixture of fiction and auto-biographical accounts. For instance, Funeral Flowers (track two) is requiem written by England about the recent passing of his father, who died in February 2005, two days before the band’s release of Succumb to Hell. Musically, the songs are richly textured and neatly arranged to reflect the band’s melodic underpinnings. Strangers is also the first Pondering Judd record to feature complete musical and lyrical collaborations between England and Decken. For example, Decken wrote the music to both Dry As Fire (track three) and Wake Up (track five), and passed the compositions on to England, who penned the lyrics to both songs.
Pondering Judd is long known for their high-energy live performances, filling rooms from Portland to Burlington to Boston, and attracts extremely diverse audiences in the process. The have shared stages with the likes of Guster, The Saw Doctors, Push Stars, Rustic Overtones, Dispatch, Entrain, and Rubyhorse, to name a few. “Pondering Judd put on a blistering set…before I knew what hit me, I was swept onto the dance floor.”-Margaret Logan, Northeast Performer
|
