We’re gearing up for a particularly busy summer and fall for PoB, with a number of new releases to announce. The first we’re able to share with you is, in our humble (and biased) opinion, the most compelling and beautiful guitar record in recent memory, the kind of album that makes you forget yourself with its loveliness. (We’re always looking to forget.)
Ambsace, the second album of astonishing duets by guitarists James Elkington (who has toured and/or recorded with Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson, and Steve Gunn, among others) and Nathan Salsburg (accompanist to Joan Shelley and an accomplished soloist deemed by NPR “one of those names we’ll all associate with American folk guitar”) is a sublime suite of nimble, filigreed compositions by two singular stylists. Belying its title—“ambsace” is the lowest throw of dice; snake eyes—the record thrives on a gentle empathy and generosity of spirit, sitting sneakily protean original compositions alongside gorgeous arrangements of songs by Duke Ellington and The Smiths at the same big hand-hewn table.
So you like all those additional guitar and lap steel parts on Steve Gunn’s Way Out Weather? Do you like the sound of summer rainstorms? Then you will like this record.
RIYL Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Stefan Grossman, Mike Cooper, Nic Jones, Roscoe Holcomb, Richard Thompson, Richard Crandell and Bill Bartels, Daniel Bachman, and Steve Gunn.
$9.00 – $29.00
Other ways to purchase this release: iTunes | Bandcamp
The deluxe LP, pressed on virgin vinyl, features a heavy-duty matte jacket and a download coupon; the CD is housed in a gatefold jacket. Pre-orders include an immediate 320k MP3 download of the first single, “Up of Stairs,” which you can listen to here thanks to the good people at Paste, and below. We anticipate shipping pre-orders at least a week in advance of the September 18 release date.
All pre-order customers who place orders by September 6 will be entered into a drawing for an Ambsace test pressing and a PoB t-shirt.
Y’all like live music? A bunch of our artists are on tour this summer and fall, including The Weather Station, Nap Eyes, Steve Gunn, Nathan Bowles, and Jake Xerxes Fussell.