Like The River Loves The Sea

by Joan Shelley

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Pete Brown We live in absurd times, but at least we have Joan Shelley's exquisite music. It always helps. Her voice is a warm hug to the soul. Joan Shelley and Nathan Salsburg are minor deities, etc.
Favorite track: all of 'em

nellie brown It’s smooth beautiful voices, with hmm harmonies and great songwriting ... had to get it, was listening whilst making small ceramic pieces, and e earthing seemed to fit together ...thank you ☺️

Johnny Eaton It's nearly impossible to choose a favourite track on this album. It is a complete entity, with the quality of being sung to sleep by your mother when you were little. A gorgeously serene voice paired with delicate melodies. Favorite track: The Fading.

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Like The River Loves The Sea on vinyl! Comes with lyrics and an exclusive poem by Max Porter

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4 panel folder with a 16 page booklet

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Like The River Loves The Sea CD signed by Joan Shelley!

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**Autographed** Like The River Loves The Sea LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Like The River Loves The Sea LP (black vinyl) signed by Joan Shelley!

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LP - Teal Vinyl (Bandcamp Exclusive)
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited to 500 copies. Like The River Loves The Sea on teal vinyl **LAST COPIES**

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LP Bundle: Like The River Loves The Sea / Joan Shelley / Over and Even
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
3 x Joan Shelley LPs!

- Like The River Loves The Sea (2019)
- Joan Shelley (2017)
- Over and Even (2015)

Includes unlimited streaming of Like The River Loves The Sea via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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	1.	Haven 01:44
	2.	Coming Down For You 03:12
	3.	Teal 04:10
	4.	Cycle 03:50
	5.	When What It Is 02:58
	6.	The Fading 03:09
	7.	The Sway 03:22
	8.	Awake 03:12
	9.	Stay All Night 03:04
	10.	Tell Me Something 02:46
	11.	High On The Mountain 03:49
	12.	Any Day Now 03:30

about

It was that Lee Hazlewood Cowboy in Sweden record.

It was learning that the Atlantic Ocean spreads by about an inch each year, pushing apart Europe and America.

It was that Iceland sits on top of that bubbling ridge and gains strange new land by its spreading.

It was the desire to drink in that otherworldly landscape and experience its effect in the music, the way different alcohols have different intoxicating effects on a body.

It was those cheap flights advertised.

It was that you had to leave home to see it for what it is, to frame it neatly: to miss a thing was to know its shape.

These songs deal with the nest that is Kentucky. There’s a saying that goes something like, “When the world comes to an end, I want to be in Kentucky where it's always 5 years behind.” The water they say is good for distilling bourbon. There is something in the water. And what it produces in its people is alternately Dionysian and Apollonian.

Woven into the melodies and rhythms of these songs are fragments of the many musical traditions that comprise what we now call Kentucky music: Irish, British, and African to name a few. The best music would be a conversation with the divine that has seen all of it, or with the oldest trees that have witnessed the whole human story. These songs are partly that conversation, at times through the lens of lovers. They are also a longing cry born of all the dividing; a call across the slowly spreading ocean. Primarily, Like the River Loves the Sea is built as a haven for overstimulated heads in uncertain times. The title (which comes from a song by Si Kahn) speaks of the inevitable and at times indifferent nature of love. Whether it be a physical place or an idea, everyone needs a place of comfort. One where we can look out again from that place of calm and see how to best act and to be in an uncertain world.

- Joan Shelley
Skylight, Ky, April 2019

credits

released August 30, 2019

Produced by James Elkington and Joan Shelley

James Elkington: drums, bass, percussion, guitars, piano, Wurlitzer, JX3F synth, and harmonium

Nathan Salsburg: acoustic and electric guitars

Joan Shelley: classical, resonator, and acoustic guitars

Sigrún Kristbjörg Jónsdóttir: violin and viola

Þórdís Gerður Jónsdóttir: cello

Albert Finnbogason: Wurlitzer (3)

Harmony vocals: Bonnie “Prince” Billy (2, 6), Cheyenne Mize (7, 8, 11), and Julia Purcell (7, 8, 11)

Recorded at Greenhouse and Iðnó in Reykjavik, Iceland by Albert Finnbogason.

Mixed by Kevin Ratterman at La La Land, Mastered by Joe Lambert.

Additional recording by James Elkington, Daniel Martin Moore, and Kevin Ratterman.

All songs written by Joan Shelley

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about

Joan Shelley Louisville, Kentucky

Joan Shelley is a songwriter and singer from Louisville, KY. Often joined by guitarist Nathan Salsburg, she has shared shows with the likes of Jake Xerxes Fussell, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Daniel Martin Moore, the Other Years, & Michael Hurley.

joanshelley.net

Recommendations

shows

May 21

Gosforth Civic Theatre

Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Jun 02

Parc del Fòrum

Barcelona, Spain

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