City of Legends

The Southern Route it is.  Nordette (Frillie the Dragon) tricked me into promising New Orleans would be on the tour…

Not that I am complaining.  That area holds many strange and bittersweet memories for me.  A few more wouldn’t hurt.

And, in a somewhat related item, Barb Holmes asked about my next CD…which for reason or other flipped a switch and I sat down at the console and finished recording my vocals for "The Goad".  Hard charging, angry guitars, synthesizers and drums.  I like it.  Maybe I’ll post it here if someone asks nicely enough.

Bribes are welcome.

By Monday morning, January 26, 2009, the new CD, TRUTH, will be out, as well as all tracks off of it available through www.williamfdevault.com for those of you too cheap (or wrecked by the economy) to buy it.

The picture is by and of my friend and muse, Ukrainian artist and photographer Mariya Andriychuk, who contributed so much to the development of this CD, and I am eternally grateful.  The CD is dedicated to her for her influence and help.

I said I would, or might, share the titular track from my next CD, TRUTH, with you here.

So, here it  is.

TRUTH

And yes, I am working of several possible cover designs for the CD, featuring the photography of Mariya Andriychuk, if I can just get her to keep some clothes on long enough…or not.  Maybe it is time I really put out some naked reads.

Out of the goodness of my heart.  And to silence the people griping.  I have modified the free CD track page at www.williamfdevault.com to include a player.

(sound of crickets)

Hey. 

Maybe I need to explain more fully.  When you go to the page (linked above, for the truly lazy amongst you) with the free tracks, you will find the old, gold table for downloads, with the tracks delineated by CD.

But you will also find, at the top of the page (just below and to the left of banner model Christina Banderas, had to get in a plug for her again) a javascript player, pre-loaded with 27 tracks totaling well over two hours of readings and interpretations, most with music, ranging in genre from folk to rock, electric synthesizers to pastoral cithara.  I like to play, what can I say?

So you can click the play button and sit back and not have to click new tracks (unless you want to replay or skip a track or just keep listening to The Gods of Love, Live at Kyrienar until your head explodes.

I just promoted the tracks

Right Set of Lips

I rained poetry

(Love is an) Howling Beast

and the re-engineered (Evangelist) version of

Kisses for Karma

to the free listening room/download area on williamfdevault.com

Enjoi!

I need some sleep.  And a pile of fried chicken livers.  And a really good, earnest kiss.  And a rubdown.  And a new pair of running shoes.  And a vacation.   And a Damascus that is not an illusion.  And a Peppermint Patty (she candy, not the Peanuts character).

But for now, there is the forge and the hammer and the heat of the coals.  It is enough.

Here’s the tracks you can pretty much bet your grandmother’s virtue will be on Evangelist:

from the CD Amomancer:  nightblooming

• the taste.  Possibly the most sultry work I’ve done.  so far.

from the CD The Gods of Love:  Nemicorn

• NQ.  A funked up dance number.
• Right Set of Lips.  A charming little acoustic piece everyone seems to love.
• Strange…but Beautiful.  A tribute to every woman’s unique charms.  And the charm of unique women.
• Darfur (Jesus Wept).  We debated the inclusion, as it is inconsistent with the other pieces, but it has to be said.
• Love Gods (Multivox).  An experiment that did me proud.  Some people (ahem) still insist I had help on this one.
• Thetis.  I am not a huge fan of it, but someone dear to me adores it, and I am a sucker for that.
• Brisant Revelations.  A throwback to late-60’s classic rock.  The poem itself was written on a napkin at Larry Jaffe’s Moondog Cafe poetry readings one Spring evening while waiting to take the microphone.

from the CD William F. DeVault and The Gods of Love:  The Last Romantic Verb

• Kisses for Karma.  And yes, we’ve muted the horns in this lush evocation.
• Beasts of Legend.  How could I refuse this twelve-minute poetry jam?  Be thankful I left out Wordslinger.  God, but I love the transition into Radiant Tigers in this one.

That’s the current inclusion list for previously released tracks.  It could get altered if Jesika™ or Jazz decide to jam out their numbers to Layla-lengths.  We shall see.  And expect some pretty heady stuff and a surprise dedication on this disk.

Thanks to everyone, especially Mac, Dan, Sabrina, Jen, Karla and Twist for the emotional support. 

Ordered my new boots today.  You didn’t really think I’d start a new tour without a new, shiny, overpriced pair of exceptionally sweet Arthur boots, did you?   You obviously do not know me too well.

As we crank up the PR machine on the new CDs (and I want everyone to say something nice about the cover, posted a few entries below…if enough of you say nice things maybe we can get the model to submit to an interview) I thought I’d say a few words about the tracks, to sort of set the frame.

Enchante.
This is a strange one, very much a song rather than a poem with musical accompaniment. Written to the lady, I knew when we first recorded it that it would stand out.

the taste.
When I mentioned this piece the first time to a muse, she laughed and said it was probably something obscene (judging from the title). Actually, it is based on my poem "the taste of remembrance" which is decidedly not erotic, but about memories of someone you love becoming synonymous with the very concept of memory.

Centaur.
I recorded this piece several months ago and then it just plain never made it onto the previous CDs, which is a shame, because it has a very nice flow to it. It crossbreeds several of my favourite themes to become a plea for a constant love and an admission of a need for companionship.

Slitoris.
Okay, I can be a sick and deranged soul when the spirit is upon me. This very arch work dovetails nicely with "Cut Me" and has to deal, as does that piece, with a darker element in my sexuality.

Cut Me
See "slitoris" above. The music behind this piece plays out like something from an old gothic horror movie.

Rivers of Resurrection
A melange of several works, very ethereal, very magical.

sleep
There’s a comfort and a menace to this work, I still find it a little creepy. See if you agree when you hear it.

I want the fire
You can hear on this one where my voice wasn’t sure if I needed to just read it, or sing. I compromised and the resultant timbre of my voice seems to be communicating a puzzled urgency, a certain resolve in the face of a lost path.

Bright and Deadly
My, we are dark on this CD, aren’t we. Monster guitar and some no-nonsense vocals seek a truce.

Mantichore
Originally this was an instrumental (unique to my CDs)…but during a listening session, the words came and the words cannot be refused.

Wailing Wall
I don’t know what happened here to make this what it is. It’s like when the microphone came on the Robert Plant within me made a run for it.

Horizon
I like this. Very gentle, very fluid.

Skyscraper Ambition
Okay, let me explain this one. There’s this woman. She’s very tall…

32fps2
This may very well end up being the last piece on the CD, because of the way it ends, both structurally and thematically.

Golden Apples
Se "Skyscraper Ambition", above.

Burning in this chosen sphere
In the beginning was the word, and the word was hot. Or, as the lady herself says, "strong". There is a masculinity to the sexuality in this piece that seemed like a great balance of lust and dreams.

So that’s my meander on the tracks…I hope you enjoy "Amomancer: nightblooming" when it comes out on the 24th.

Some people have asked me the hidden meaning in the name…well, there’s this flower that blooms at night and I would lay awake in Venice Beach and inhale the beauty. Flash forward a few years and there’s this woman that blooms at night…