The First Edition Vinyl LP is pressed on Clear Golden Smoke Color Vinyl and is limited to 1,000 copies worldwide!
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Several years ago, Grant-Lee Phillips was wandering the elegant halls of the Norton Simon Art Museum in Pasadena, California. Amid a collection of highly detailed paintings from India, some dating back to the 1800s, one particular work caught his eye. The accomplished singer, songwriter, and painter opened up his notebook and made a note of both the imagery of the painting and the ominous implications of its title. This notebook entry would one day come to inspire the title of Phillips’ 12th solo album, the self-produced In the Hour of Dust.
“A common theme throughout the poetry and the paintings of India,” Phillips explains, “is this concept of ‘the hour of cow dust.’ It’s that moment of the day when the cows are led back home, they kick up the dust; that's a cue to prepare the lamps. Night is about to fall.”
While Phillips doesn’t shy away from the big themes of contemporary life, In the Hour of Dust is also a highly intimate affair; both in its musical presentation and the highly personal – often autobiographical – lyrics in the songs, all set, the songwriter admits, “against this larger discordant backdrop.”
Like many of us, Phillips is constantly fighting to keep his head above the noise of the news and the everyday anxiety of modern life. Writing songs is his way of pushing back against the hazy twilight, and lighting the lamps in order to lead himself, and anyone else listening, out of the darkness.
Phillips reflects, “We can focus on all of the various freedoms that are being threatened, things that maybe a year or two ago, we might've taken for granted. But at a certain point in time, it comes back down to very human primal things. I don't see songs of love and songs of protest as being so far apart, really. It’s all about recognizing the value of connection in a disconnected time.”
More from Grant-Lee Phillips:
Ladies’ Love Oracle (2000)
Little Moon (2009)
Walking in the Green Corn (2012)
The Narrows (2016)
Widdershins (2018)
Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff (2020)
Yuletide (2021)
All That You Can Dream (2022)
