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Indie singer-songwriter Erin Rae has released her critically acclaimed album ‘Putting On Airs’ – connecting with fans and media across the globe, Rae’s new record has been praised in publications in both the USA and UK, with support from media including Paste, Nylon, Boston Globe, NPR (All Songs Considered), Billboard, Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, Noisey, Vulture, Lady Gunn and Uncut Magazine (8/10 album review) alongside The Sunday Times, Guardian and Independent in the UK. Nylon recently premiered her surreal new video for psychedelic folk rock single ‘June Bug’ with, who described Rae as “sailing in a particularly strong fleet right now— you feel this is her time to crest.” Check out the video here: https://nylon.com/articles/erin-rae-interview
Buoying the release is Rae’s reputation as an enthralling live performer, with Erin soon to take ‘Putting On Airs’ on the road – performing dates across the country including two shows at Nashville’s Basement – see full dates below.
She has earned her the respect of Nashville peers and music notables alike, including Grammy Award winner John Paul White, who has signed her to his Florence, Alabama-based label, Single Lock Records. Rae joins a Single Lock roster that includes Nicole Atkins and White himself, who added, “When I first heard Erin’s compelling voice, I knew nothing about her. It was live, with no intro (she was opening for friends of mine), and I was instantly transfixed. I couldn’t wait to engage, and that’s something I very seldom feel, much less do. I was thrilled to find out her personality was as engaging as her voice and songs, and that she was looking for a home. I couldn’t be happier to be hitching our wagons together.”
She also recently made her debut at the Ryman in Nashville, performing twice in two days, supporting friends Margo Price and Hiss Golden Messenger. A busy tour schedule, including spring support dates with the Mountain Goats and Margo Price, a summer headlining tour, and an appearance at End Of The Road Festival in the UK, shows Erin Rae’s star is on the rise on both sides of the Atlantic.
Erin recently premiered her mesmerising new album via First Listen on NPR, with Ann Powers stating, “the quartet hit upon a sound redolent of Laurel Canyon psychedelia, adding Mellotron keyboards and vibraphone to Erin Rae’s usual strum. The arrangements serve her storytelling perfectly, creating a kind of cinematic glow around her spare, but hardly simple stories.” Rae describes the album as being “born out of a need to do some healing work in my personal life, to address some fears and patterns of mine in order to allow my true feelings to come to the surface.”
Gifted with the unique ability to fuse musical genres and influences to craft songs that feel fresh and wholly her own, with ‘Putting On Airs’, Rae has thrown down a direct challenge to the stereotype of what a Southern singer should be. Both musically and lyrically, she strikes a fiercely independent chord. Erin is proudly releasing a deeply personal record that reflects her own experience and upbringing in Tennessee and her struggle to understand her own sexuality and her experience with mental health, which she explores on tracks like “Bad Mind,” a deeply personal account of coming to terms with a difficult event from her childhood, where an Alabama court ruled her aunt to be an “unfit” mother, solely because she was gay.
Rae, whose genre-fusing mix of traditional folk, indie-rock, and 1960s psych-rock production has landed her collaborations with artists like Margo Price and Andrew Combs, has stepped out into the spotlight with ‘Putting On Airs’. The album was recorded in the dead of winter at The Refuge, a former Franciscan monastery turned creative space run by singer-songwriters Cory Chisel and Adriel Denae in Appleton, WI. This unique setting provided the perfect backdrop for Erin and her bandmates to track these genre-busting songs, using the chapel and other unique spaces within the cavernous building to explore new sonic boundaries, all while continuing to showcase Erin’s trademark vocals and the song-serving restraint first heard on her critically-acclaimed 2015 debut album, Soon Enough.
The unique sound of the record is inspired by the innovative 1960s European production techniques from artists like the Beatles and Francoise Hardy, paired alongside the restraint and minimalism of modern artists like Angel Olsen, Richard Hawley, Twain, and Michael Nau, bridging the sonic gap between classic songwriting and a modern indie-rock ethos. The album was co-produced by engineer Dan Knobler (Rodney Crowell, Tift Merritt) and multi-instrumentalist Jerry Bernhardt. Dominic Billett also served an integral role in the collective that worked together to create the album’s innovative and varied sonic pallet, providing the perfect soundscape for Erin’s soothing vocals, bathing everything in the warmth and purity that has become her trademark sound.
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PUTTING ON AIRS TRACK LIST:
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Grand Scheme
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Putting On Airs
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Bad Mind
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Can’t Cut Loose
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Love Like Before
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June Bug
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Mississippi Queen
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Like The First Time
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The Real Thing
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Anchor Me Down
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Wild Blue Wind
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Pretend
TOUR:
JUL 9 MON – Cafe Nine – New Haven, CT
JUL 10 TUE – City Winery, Boston, MA,
JUL 11 WED – Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA,
JUL 13 FRI – Mr Smalls Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA,
JUL 14 SAT – The Loft at City Winery, New York, NY,
JUL 15 SUN – Arrowood Farms Summer Concert Series, Accord, NY,
JUL 17 TUE – Bell’s Brewery, Kalamazoo, MI,
JUL 19 THU – Codfish Hollow Barnstormers, Maquoketa, IA,
JUL 22 SUN – The Castle Theater, Bloomington, IL,
JUL 26 THU – Jefferson Theater, Charlottesville, VA
JUL 27 FRI – DC9 – Washington, DC,
AUG 30 THU- SEP 2 SUN – End Of The Road Festival, Dorset, Southwest, United Kingdom
SEP 11 – SEP 16 – Americanafest, Nashville, TN
ALBUM CREDITS:
Erin Rae – Vocals, electric and acoustic guitars
Jerry Bernhardt – Mellotron, Casiotone, Wurlitzer, Farfisa, piano, pump organ, electric/acoustic/slide guitars, bass, autoharp, whistle, drums on “Like The First Time”
Dominic Billett – Drums, percussion, vibraphone, bass guitar on “Like The First Time”
Background Vocals – Dom Billett & Jerry Bernhardt
All Songs written by Erin Rae McKaskle
Produced by Dan Knobler & Jerry Bernhardt
Recording and Mixing Engineer: Dan Knobler
Mastering Engineer: Alex McCollough, True East Mastering
Recorded at The Refuge in Appleton, WI (February 13-20, 2017). Mixed at Goosehead Palace in Nashville, TN
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If you are not yet familiar with Erin Rae, ‘Putting On Airs’ is one of the most talked about releases of this year (out on John Paul White’s Single Lock records June 8) with media support from NPR (first listen), Boston Globe, Tennessean, Upproxx, Paste Magazine, Nylon, Billboard, World Cafe, American Songwriter, Noisey, Vulture, Lady Gunn, Rolling Stone and Nashville Scene in the USA and publications like The Sunday Times, The Independent and The Guardian in the UK comparing her to artists as diverse as Karen Carpenter, George Harrison, Marlon Williams and Big Thief.
