New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Poetica has released "Sleep When I'm Tired," a new single from their debut self-titled album (out October 22nd via MPress Records). What began as a remote duo collaboration between poet/vocalist/producer Rachael Sage and three-time Grammy nominated cellist Dave Eggar, Poetica eventually evolved into a full-blown spoken word concept album, with musicians contributing from around the globe. "Sleep When I'm Tired" harnesses Eastern European and flamenco musical flavors to capture physical and mental exhaustion. Sage and Eggar channel smoky bar vibes, depicting love's resilience in the face of duress. Beatbox grooves, acoustic guitar, and blues harmonica provide colorful accompaniment to this instant alt-folk classic.
"'Sleep When I'm Tired' is the only sung piece on Poetica - versus the rest of the album being spoken-word focused material," Sage told Americana Highways. "The reason I included it was because it was composed in real time off the top of my head, as I sang the lyrics over a guitar loop without editing a line or redoing the lead vocal...it was one take, and a rather imperfect, gritty performance but I felt it captured a feeling, in the spirit of the album as a whole. I had been listening to Nick Cave's 'The Weeping Song' earlier in the evening, fell asleep, and then decided to build a piece around clapping, which you can hear in the choruses. From there, I added beatboxing and percussion and just tried to capture the essence of profound exhaustion, and the process one goes through trying to emerge from darkness into light."
Cinematic and stylistically expansive, Poetica is a creatively ambitious musical spoken word project distilling a poetic spirit through text, voice and music in the spirit of Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith and Laurie Anderson. Adventurous yet familiar in its intimacy, Sage's voice is perfectly at home in the absence of typical song structure, while her musical arrangements fuse elements of jazz, classical, and Appalachian folk with surprising agility. Only rarely does Sage enlist her more widely-known singing voice to punctuate these recordings, from which her signature piano playing is notably - and intentionally - absent.
Additional contributors to Poetica include renowned klezmer clarinetist
David Krakauer, jazz trumpet player Russ Johnson (Elvis Costello), violinist
Kelly Halloran (Michael Franti), guitarist
James Mastro (Patti Smith), and drummers Doug Yowell (Suzanne Vega) and Quinn (Janelle Monáe).
Poetica's self-titled album releases on October 22nd.
Tracklisting:
1. Unconditional
2. Beginning
3. Powder
4. Passenger
5.
Magenta and Blue
6. Lower East Side Baby
7. Lamentation
8. Handwriting
9. Days of Awe
10. Winemaker
11. Sleep When I'm Tired
12. Butterflies
13. How Songs Are Born
14. engagement
15. Pulpit
16. Thanksgiving
17. Swing Dance
18. untitled
19. a father's nachus (Bonus Track)
Poetica Tour Dates:
10/13 -
Spring Lake, MI -
Seven Steps Up
10/14 - Chicago, IL - Uncommon Ground Lakeview
10/17 - Wilmington, DE -
Private House Concert
10/23 - Charlottesville, VA - The Garage
10/26 - Knoxville, TN - WDVX Blue Plate Special
10/28 - Nashville, TN - Cabana Taps
10/29 - Duluth, GA - Red Clay
Music Foundry
11/9 - New York, NY - The Loft At City Winery
