“This album was truly a risk and a chance encounter. It played out like a spring storm in EauClaire, Wisconsin.” About half-way through the recording of Sean Rowe’s excellent new album,The DarknessDressed in Colored Lights(Fluff & Gravy Records), he and producer Troy Pohl were taking abreak. They were holed-up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, working at Brian Joseph’s studio,Hive,which is situated on a remote acreage of rolling green hills. While catching their breath, theynoticed a minivan that hadturned off of the rarely traveled road adjacent to the property andonto the grass, driving straight towards them. It pulled so close that it almost touched the picnictable. A stout and somewhat menacing man emerged, who did little to calm suspicions when hespoke.“You ever been on TV?” he asked. Rowe, thinking that’s exactly the kind of thing someone might say before murdering you, replied,“I actually have. Have you?” “Yep, back in the early 90’s, I was on David Letterman twice.” “Oh yeah, for what?” “Stupid Human Tricks—I could pour two beers at once without using any of my appendages.” Troy and Sean nodded in recognition and without another word, the man climbed back into hisminivan and drove off. As he was pulling away, Brian Joseph came sprinting across the yard tosee what was happening. They recounted the head-scratching tale of their brush with a minorcelebrity and after some failed attempts to make sense of it, went back to the business ofmaking a record. A blessing and curse of a curious mind paired with a sense of adventure is that one becomes acollector of stories. Some, like this, play out over the course of a few minutes while others, moreprofound and complex, take years to untangle. Rowe, an artist and nomad at heart, has madehimself into the perfect repository for spun yarns of every variety—hysterical, terrifying,heartbreaking, mystifying, and ridiculous—and on this record, he makes it clear that at somepoint it’s hard not to feel them all at once. The album’s titleis taken from its first single, “To Make It Real.” “All this darkness, dressed incolored lights. Everything is wrong but you look so damn beautiful tonight.”It’s a relatablecouplet that illustrates the paradox between what once was and what now is, while the chorushowls in response to being lost in the inbetween.“When you lose your way, when you lose yourface, when you’re paid in full for what you used to steal. When you lose that love, when you loseyour mind, well then oh my God, you make it real.”   While “To Make It Real” was forged from the despair that comes from losing yourself toheartache, “Little Death” recognizes that both in spite of and because of such events, it’spossible to find yourself again. Here, Rowe brushes off the dirt and looks ahead to the freedomof only being accountable to oneself.“A little death, it won’t kill us after all and that’s fine. Whenyou ain’t there, you ain’t there to feel all that pain.”In the chorus, he lists some of what he'slooking forward to.“I’m gonna write a song, gonna phone a friend. I’m gonna fall in love with theroad again. I’m gonna wrap my arms around her waist. Work me Lord and wash my sins. I’mgonna fall in love with the woods again. Fix that sorry shape I’m in.” Rowe opened up about some of the work he’s been doing to build a fitter, happier version of himself. “The heaven and hell that swirls around in our head—to a large extent, we make both.So, in realizing that, you begin to realize that you have the ability to decide which one you’regonna make.” Rowe credits therapy and a guided ayahuasca retreat with helping him to reachthis understanding. “Over the course of an intense weekend, I had three profound experiences that stripped awayall of my defenses and rationalization, along with the guilt and anger that built up over thecourse of being a human. Two of those experiences brought me to a place of such intensebeauty and peace, while the third showed me the exact opposite. I think that the lessonslearned over that weekend are still being revealed but in those moments, I seemed toexperience real heaven and hell. Now it’s up to me to choose which one I want to exist in.” The Darkness Dressed in Colored Lightsis ripe with both dimensions. It was produced by Rowe’s friend and longtimecollaborator Troy Pohl, whom he has known since he was in hisearly twenties while Pohl was still a teen. The two grew into their professionalism together andhere, they make the most of their combined ambition and experience.The studioHivein Eau Claire, Wisconsin was chosen so that they could work with the Grammy-winning engineer, Brian Joseph (Bon Iver) and for its proximity to a group of musicians thatSean came to admire while listening to Anna Tivel’s remarkable album,The Question, in hismanager’s basement studio. That group includes drummer/percussionist, and producer ShaneLeonard, along with Jeremy Boetcher on bass, and Ben Lester on keys and pedal steel.Courtney Hartman was flown from Colorado to provide background vocals and guitar. ChrisCarey provided additional bass, while John DeHaven, Jeff Nania, and Joel Yannuzzi made upthe album’s brass section. Rowe’s admiration for Tivel’s album was not limited to its sonics. The Portland, Oregon labelFluff & Gravy Records, which has released all of Anna Tivel’s albums, is home toThe DarknessDressed in Colored Lights,which will be released on CD and double-vinyl, as well as availableon all streaming services on October 8.

Anna Tivel is a NW based, internationally touring songwriter who is forever drawn to the quiet stories of ordinary life. The characters and imagery that populate her writing are full of breath and vivid color. With four full length albums out and a fifth on the way, Anna has been likened to a short story writer and praised by NPR, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and others for her keen observations of the human condition. Career accomplishments: Anna’s most recent album, The Question, was called ‘one of the most ambitious folk records of 2019’ by NPR. She was selected as the winner of both the Telluride Troubadour songwriting award and the Kerrville New Folk award. Most recently she was awarded the ASCAP Foundation’s Sammy Cahn Award, which recognizes promising or aspiring lyricists. Her previous album, ‘Small Believer,’ was heralded by NPR as “an album that repeatedly achieves this exquisite balance of the quotidian and the sublime.”