For the past five years, Seattle-base piano-man Aaron English has been steadily building a buzz in the U.S., thanks to two self-released albums, increasing media attention (such as a prominent shout-out on the Fox TV drama Bones), and three national tours playing in clubs and at summer festivals to crowds of up to 4,000 people.
Now all of this momentum has culminated in the release of his third album, american [fever] dream…and the debut single, “Believe”, which peaked at #18 on the Modern A/C radio chart in July 2010. The name of the single and the new album are oblique references to a catastrophic tour bus accident, two years ago, on a Midwestern highway while English was on tour: “My bus was totaled in the crash, and most of the musical equipment was destroyed as well,” says English. “The tour was cancelled. I wrote this new album from a space of needing to decide whether I was going to keep believing in the music, keep following the dream.”
Produced by Sun Kil Moon’s Geoff Stanfield, the new album incorporates American influences as diverse as 1960’s folk, Talking-Heads-style white funk, ambient electronica, and gospel. The recording highlights English’s rusty tenor vocals and deft keyboard work on grand piano and Wurlitzer organ, framed by Stanfield's swirling, otherworldly production magic and loop-pedal-based guitar textures. Early comparisons have been drawn to Elbow, Coldplay, and Dave Matthews Band.
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