Winnemucca

Winnemucca

ASIN: B000063122

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Originally released in 2002, "Winnemucca" was recorded at Type Foundry studios in Portland, Oregon by John Askew and Joanna Bolme (Steven Malkmus). "Winnemucca" finds the members of Richmond Fontaine mining a subtler vein than on previous efforts. The album deftly conjures up images of a late night ride through the desert where death, despair, and ultimately hope reign supreme. With "Winnemucca" Richmond Fontaine have established themselves as a band willing to travel where their music takes them.

Tracks:

Winner's Casino
Out of State
Northline
Santiam
Twyla
Patty's Retreat
Glisan Street
Somewhere Near
5 Degrees Below Zero
Western Skyline

Album Description

Originally released in 2002, "Winnemucca" was recorded at Type Foundry studios in Portland, Oregon by John Askew and Joanna Bolme (Steven Malkmus). "Winnemucca" finds the members of Richmond Fontaine mining a subtler vein than on previous efforts. The album deftly conjures up images of a late night ride through the desert where death, despair, and ultimately hope reign supreme. With "Winnemucca" Richmond Fontaine have established themselves as a band willing to travel where their music takes them.

Customer Reviews:

I'm in love with the songs.......2006-05-18

It's hard to write an album review when you find yourself in love with certain songs. I would hold true everything the above reviews say about this album. "Northline" is brilliant but the absolute gem on this album is "Western Skyline" - perhaps one of the best "alt-country" songs ever written!!!

Utter Perfection.......2003-01-23

I loved Richmond Fontaine's previous two albums, especially Lost Son, their latest before Winnemucca. But with Winnemucca, Richmond Fontaine have outdone themselves. I must say that this is one of the best, most timeless, touching, and simply gorgeous albums in the entire "alt.country" genre, if not in all music. Willy Vlautin's lyrics are evocative, emotional, and show so much pathos for the type of person i like to call the 'sensitive ...-up'. These types pepper his songs...like the kid being driven by his brother to a jail for low-level offenders (you know, the type who choose to imbibe a substance other than alcohol and have to spend the rest of their life paying for our society's hypocrisy)...and ray thames from 'five degrees below zero' who pawned all his stuff and now has to live at his uncle's due to some imaginable addiction or mess up (as a female ray thames, i know exactly how miserable this kind of thing can be). They reach musical, not just lyrical, epiphany here too, from each tear-jerking pedal steel note to the wails of feedback on the second instrumental "Patty's Retreat", Richmond Fontaine have not gotten the kind of attention that many other past and present alt.country bands have gotten, and all I can say is its a damn shame. They make Uncle Tupelo sound coarse, Ryan Adams sound like a bratty punk, and the supposedly "seminal" Gram Parsons sound like the most overrated performer in the history of the genre. And to the few who may agree with this review, I'd suggest you check out Pinetop Seven, another wonderful and unappreciated 'alt.country' band. Their album "Rigging The Toplights" has the same kind of gorgeous fairground melancholy as "Winnemucca". Also try Hem's debut album, "Rabbit Songs" for a similar kind of beauty with amazing female vocals. If the three of them played LA sometime soon, it would be sheer musical heaven.

Who is Richmond Fontaine?.......2002-06-17

Shades of Jay Farrar and Matthew Ryan. "Five Degrees Below Zero" is worth the price of admission alone. Wish these talented guys out of Oregon would do some touring. Mr. V is a great writer, and I can just sit around all day reciting the lyrics. Great effort!!

Excellent alt-country!.......2002-06-15

This CD reverberates with feelings and memories of being isolated and alone, walking along a 2-lane highway, trying to hitch a ride to a new destination. This album is much different than RF's previous albums, and perhaps not as good as the amazing "Miles From", however, the music and lyrics catch the listener's ear and pulls him in like a good novel. As with most of Willy Vlautin's songs, all the songs here tell a story. Most of them entail normal people put though extraordinary circumstances. In "Northern Skyline", a man holds his friend on the side of the road after a car wreck, as he makes promises to the dying man of "glowing light and beautiful women" before he is finally "set free." "Northline" tells the story of a former skinhead girlfriend of the storyteller who had fallen into the traps of her other boyfriend's messed up belief system and disappeares from the narrator's life. Perhaps the most disturbing, yet beautiful song is, "5 Degrees Below Zero" in which the protagonist, in a fit of rage about his life and his surroundings, stops the bus he is on in the middle of nowhere so he can walk out into the freezing elements to his imminent death. RF is not only the engaging lyrics of Mr. Vlautin, but also the incredible pedal steel playing of Paul Brainard, whose simple, but tasty style completes the feeling of each song perfectly. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes eery, Brainard's playing infuses the music with a touch of old-style country and new-psychedelica. The only thing missing from "Winnemucca" is the country punk that it has shown on all of its previous releases. Most of the songs are relaxed, and they are meant to do so...still some of the bands finer moments in the past have been from its Minutemen or X influences.

Average customer rating:

music for all ages
Awesome CD
My favorite album to give as a gift!
feel good music...
Always in my CD player

Lovelock to Winnemucca

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

General | Folk | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000G4S7
Release Date: 1998-05-01

Tracks:

Lovelock
Tributary
Slack
The Last Temptation of Odysseus
Julia
Willy and His Wife and His Wife's Lover, Lucy
California
Landlady from Hell
No U Turn
Winnemucca

Album Description

Inspired by and thematically based on the band's recent experience living in the West, Lovelock to Winnemucca traces both the geographic and emotional journey of a love-lost traveler on a lonely Nevada highway.

Center Divide comes from the "good story" school of songwriting, and in the mountains and deserts of the American West, the band found a gold mine of good stories. Lovelock to Winnemucca is populated by a memorable cast of characters, including ski bums, ranchers, old hippies, California yuppies, a jaded hobo, and a truly frightening property owner.

Outstanding musicianship completes the package. The band prides itself on its ability to create such a fat sound with a simple, acoustic-based lineup of instruments.

Customer Reviews:

music for all ages.......2004-12-25

The lyrics are interesting and clever enough to satisfy any mature music enthusiast. The tunes and rythms are hip enough for the young
listener. I've had this CD for a long time and it just keeps getting better.

Awesome CD.......2003-12-12

This CD is really great. It is an outstanding blend of talent. The lyrics are excellent and the music fantastic. Buy this if you like country rock.

My favorite album to give as a gift!.......2002-08-20

I have bought many many copies of this album -- everyone who hears it loves it! Great music for long drives, dark days in a basement, chopping onions - it will always make you happy.

feel good music..........2002-02-24

After a week in the desert looking for water, I'd rather find a dusty bar with no drinks and Lovelock playing on the radio.

Always in my CD player.......2000-11-18

This CD has had an intimate relationship with my CD player for over a year. From drowning mythic figures and ski bums, to scary landladies and earthquakes, this CD has it all. At times, I find myself needing to listen to "The Last Temptation of Odysseus" which is my absolute favorite with "Winnemucca" a close second. You guys did a great job, thanks!

Jazz Music:

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