“Come on lightning, show us your stuff. The words of my young daughter, as she thrust a manzanita branch toward the night sky. Kids being kids, I figured…then I heard the thunderclap.”
Grant-Lee Phillips’ latest album, Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff, due out September 4th on Yep Roc Records, is a turbulent and highly musical rumination that finds the veteran singer-songwriter at his most inspired. His tenth solo release bears the markings of his prolific output, a melodic prowess and an ear for lyric in everyday conversation.
His last work, Widdershins, reflected the recent and radical shift in the American social climate – a world turned upside down. “I’ve tackled some of this head-on at times, addressing the inequities of this country, trying to get a few jabs in. Ultimately, I came back to the most interesting and fertile topic – our vulnerability and the scars we have to share with one another.”
Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff is grown from the same rich soil that Phillip’s long career, from Grant Lee Buffalo to his solo work has sprang from. The result is a beautifully human musical tapestry. The warm, live on the floor, instrumental bed is the perfect support for Phillips’ inimitable voice. This spontaneous approach has become a tradition among his solo works.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the video for “Gather Up,” one of the standout tracks on the new album. Playing barefoot amidst a partially animated, dreamy western landscape and rocking a mean bolo, Phillips lays into a thumping country blues number as he reflects on the dark and gothic moods that can occur from the vantage point of a church pew. As the video gets progressively stranger, Phillips lets his gritty, soulful vocals shine while backed by a rich cacophony of percussive sounds.
Phillips shares the inspiration behind the song:
“When I was kid, I was forever being dragged off with my grandparents to some little country church. The folks were always friendly as the long cars pulled up into the gravel driveway. Everyone in their Sunday best – my grandpa in a suit, grandma in a flowered dress. Once in the pews, the mood would sometimes darken with the threat of some cataclysm. There was also music. A guttural kind of music that comes out of the mouth of an old man and an overdriven amplifier. Those things stuck with me.”
WATCH:
Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff is due out September 4th on Yep Roc Records
Photo credit: Denise Seigel-Phillips
