Robert Hall
love these songs, beautiful, I just bought 4 LP bundle, shame you didn't have the bandcamp download for the other 3 LPS as well for my phone. :)
Trummors fourth album, Dropout City, is located along that ancient road full of domesticity and dust, adobe and acid, turquoise and trouble, that runs between John Phillips’ Los Angeles and New Mexico’s mountain air. More of a town, really, than a city, Dropout City is “Population 2”: Just David and Anne, who formed the band ten years ago, back in Brooklyn, before trading the skyscrapers for the Big Sky. But, you’re welcome to visit.
In a different world and a different life, David Lerner played in Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. Anne Cunningham holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and plays the harmonium. Together, as Trummors, they share songwriting and vocal duties, among other things. When their debut album, Over and Around the Clove, was released by Ernest Jenning Record Co. in 2012, their acoustic aphorisms could find no campfire, so they exited and, like all good hippies, headed west. They landed in Taos, New Mexico, where the water doesn’t taste like wine, but rather it’s mitigated, and there’s less people in the whole town than their old city block. Waylon Jennings sang a song about the town. Doug Sahm died in a motel down the street. And the Taos Hum is less a myth and more of a note that resonates like the train tracks in Memphis.
Their second and third albums, Moorish Highway (2014), and Headlands (2017), included collaborator and friend Kevin Barker, who introduced the Trummors music to Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats and Bonny Light Horseman. Johnson became a fan, and invited Trummors to play Huichica Festival in 2015. More friends and fans were made.
When it was time to record their 4th album, David and Anne called upon their California colleagues, the pearly gates opened, and they headed into an L.A. studio. Dropout City is a who’s who of “who’s dropping by?”: Derek W. James, Brent Rademaker (GospelbeacH, Beachwood Sparks), Colby Buddelmeyer, Clay Finch (Mapache, Grateful Shred), Dan Horne (Grateful Shred, Circles Around the Sun) and Johnson (Fruit Bats) all lent a hand. Produced by Jason Soda at Palomino Sound on the edge of Echo Park, Trummors new songs feel relaxed, modern, and lush, moving in and out of time.
David and Anne continue to share songwriting and singing like they’re sharing silverware–their voices alter between light and dark, feeding each other lines and licks like only two people that share a home and a life together can do. The two songs they didn’t write are “Tulsa County” and "Flock of Lawless Birds." The former is known to many from The Byrds and Jesse Ed Davis, but what many don’t know is that it was written by a woman songwriter named Pamela Polland, who made one record on Columbia in the 70s after her band, Gentle Soul, ended and who, too, then dropped out. Anne returns the song to its intended perspective, but, more so, distills it into a warmer, more rural, sense of resignation. "Flock of Lawless Birds," was written by longtime friend Amy Miller.
On Dropout City, Trummors aren’t so much escaping or distancing--they are inviting you to join them in their intentional community.
credits
released August 21, 2020
All songs by Trummors (Cunningham/Lerner) except "Tulsa County" (Pamela Polland) and "Flock of Lawless Birds" (Amy Miller).
Produced and mixed by Jason Soda at Palomino Sound, Los Angeles, CA except "Peacock Angel," recorded by Kabby Kabakoff at Kabby Sound, Santa Fe, NM
Anne Cunningham – Vocals & Harmonium
David Lerner – Vocals, Harmonica & Acoustic Guitar
Clay Finch – Vocals & Electric Guitar
Eric D. Johnson – Piano, Wurlitzer, & Hammond B3
Dan Horne – Pedal Steel
Jon Graboff – Pedal Steel
Jason Soda – Slide guitar, "Silver City Blues," Piano, "Tulsa County"
Colby Buddlemayer – Bass
Brent Rademaker – Bass, "Silver City Blues"
Derek W. James – Drums & Percussion
Will Dyar – Drums, "Peacock Angel"
Ben Tempchin – Guitar, "Peacock Angel"
Ben Montgomery – Bass, "Peacock Angel"
Artwork and Design: Darryl Norsen
Photo: Hayley Harper
Insert illustration: Robert Cunningham
"Trummors is David Lerner and Anne Cunningham from Taos, NM, along with a heady cast of rotating musicians who help flesh out their electric country-rock sound."
If Wooden Shjips traded their sails for a prairie schooner, this is what you might hear them playing around the campfire at night on the Great Plains: homespun country-rock with a hint of psychedelia. Wonderful stuff, from start to finish. neu-mann
Entire album is excellent. As is the rest of the catalog. Go back to 1970...take the Dead and Floyd and roll them up. Yet completely different.
Just plain old GOOD MUSIC. Ed Fransko
The fantastic indie folk songs on the latest from Gold Dust are slathered in gallons of echo, making them feel titanic and 200 feet tall. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 6, 2022
Inspired by John Carpenter’s 1974 film “Dark Star,” the beautifully moody songs on this LP present a voyage into the unknown. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 21, 2021
Released in 2001, “The Convincer” is a gentle gem in the Nick Lowe catalog; an anniversary edition provides opportunity for rediscovery. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 20, 2021
I really liked "Cosmic Cash" a lot but this album is even better. Eight out of twelve tracks are on heavy rotation in my playlists. Papa Jay (Radio Smorgasbord)