Hello friends of Paradise,
We are now accepting pre-orders for In Search (PoB-07), the first reissue of the highly collectable 1981 private press countrydelic masterpiece by Chance Martin, longtime friend and right-hand man of Johnny Cash and radio DJ partner of Cowboy Jack Clement.
Ringleader, maestro, and indomitable troubadour of Nashville’s most private, elusive and exclusive far-out scene – the Dead End – Chance (aka Alamo Jones, the Voice in Black, aka the Stoned Ranger) could have stepped from the pages of a Charles Portis novel, Coen Bros. script, or Barry Hannah story. The songs, many of which were written on Cash’s D35 Martin guitar, sound like some unholy pot likker of Waylon and Funkadelic: a strange Southern gothic, alternately funky and frightening, and utterly transfixing.
To purchase the album, and for more details, click the button below and select your preferred format(s). The vinyl LP is available in a limited edition, featuring heavy-duty gatefold jackets, a 13,000 word oral history chapbook recounting Chance’s (mis)adventures with all the Nashville legends, dozens of outrageous photos, a lyric sheet/inner sleeve, and a digital download coupon. The CD is housed in a gatefold wallet.
$9.00 – $31.00
Young Chance with Johnny Cash.
Pre-orders will begin shipping at least 10 days in advance of the July 16 release date. All In Search pre-orders include a link for an immediate 320k MP3 download of the track “Mr. Freedom Man,” which American Songwriter kindly premiered last week.
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Pre-order customers will also be automatically entered into a drawing for a free copy of the Paradise of Bachelors release of their choosing (subject to availability.) In Search will be available for digital-only purchase from this website and from major digital outlets on July 16. (If you’re interested in a digital-only pre-order, please visit our Bandcamp page.)
Chance headshot dedicated to Mom.
May we suggest pairing your pre-order with another PoB release, such as the critically acclaimed new albums from Steve Gunn or Hiss Golden Messenger, or perhaps our recent reissue of the Vietnam vet country-boogie laments of The Red Rippers? Either way, we guarantee–as Chance himself puts it–a High Test experience.
“Chance Martin’s In Search is the kind of totally warped holy grail artifact that I wish Nashville in the golden era had produced more of. A fully integral sonic rest stop of gratuitous guitar fuzz, wandering beat poetry, nightclub moves, and hi-tech studio possibility, it’s an album for the stoned midnight cowboy, the final port of call for the wild and weird era of the music row outlaws. It’s hard to imagine a record both so intentionally psychedelic and unintentionally cosmic.”
– William Tyler
“In Search” gatefold design.