Juliana’s new album How To Walk Away
is available now at all the usual retail outlets
 

"Gripping." - The New York Times

“She was a willowy beauty with charming shyness and a slightly tragic air.” So says Brett Milano, of Juliana Hatfield in her starting-out days, in his recent book The Sound Of Our Town: A History Of Boston Rock+Roll.

Juliana Hatfield — no less an intriguing, compelling character today — has been working as a recording artist for twenty years. With the release of How To Walk Away, her 10th solo album, she again proves herself to be an uncompromising artist with impeccable pop instincts, a disdain for artifice, a completely original voice, and a contrarian streak.
 
Starting in her teens, with her first band, critically-acclaimed, Boston-based indie rock outfit the Blake Babies (who self-released their first album before moving on to the North Carolina-based independent Mammoth Records), Hatfield has paved her own unique way, evolving with each subsequent record. She signed to Atlantic Records as a solo artist and racked up a string of mid-nineties modern-rock hits (“My Sister,” “Spin The Bottle,” “Universal Heartbeat”) before leaving the label in 1998. Hatfield was then the first signing to Zoe Records, a Rounder Records imprint. Zoe’s fourth and final Hatfield release was 2004’s In Exile Deo, named one of that year’s 10 best albums by Jon Pareles in The New York Times.

In 2005 Hatfield came full circle, back to full DIY independence, starting her own label (Ye Olde Records) and releasing the catchy but somewhat abrasive Made In China (“her most urgent, refreshingly unpolished output in years,” said Time Out New York).

How To Walk Away, also on Ye Olde Records, finds Hatfield singing in top form. “Finally,” she says, “I feel like my voice has grown into itself and I’m not struggling so much against its little-girl-ness.”

The album features guest appearances by two other distinctive vocalists: Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler on “This Lonely Love” and Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws on “Such A Beautiful Girl.” Other featured guest musicians were Fountains Of Wayne guitarist Jody Porter (some lead guitar); Jeff Hill, of Rufus Wainwright’s band, on bass; and Ethan Eubanks of the Grey Race on drums. Tracy Bonham guested on violin, and Jason Hatfield, Juliana’s brother, played piano on two songs, which he co-wrote (“Remember November” and “Such A Beautiful Girl”).

How To Walk Away was recorded at Stratosphere Sound, the NYC studio co-owned by Adam Schlesinger (Fountains Of Wayne), James Iha (formerly of Smashing Pumpkins), and Andy Chase (of revered alt-rock/pop band Ivy), who produced the album. How To Walk Away is evocative, layered, and unhurried yet Chase has managed to retain Hatfield’s essential rawness of spirit, smoothing out some rough edges but not all. Witness, for example, the loose, danceable “Now I’m Gone,” sung (and played) by Hatfield in one inspired improvisational take. And while she has frequently drawn from personal experience in the past, these songs are some of her most candid ever. (more)

Track listing:

1. The Fact Remains
2. Shining On
3. This Lonely Love
4. My Baby...
5. Just Lust
6. Now I'm Gone
7. Remember November
8. So Alone
9. Such A Beautiful Girl
10. Law of Nature

julianahatfield.com

Hear "Shining On" at
Juliana's MySpace page

*****

On “Sittin’ In A Tree…”, Hatfield takes her distinctive, iconic, melodic voice and comes together with alt/country newcomers Frank Smith (“Boston’s answer to the Band or Magnolia Electric Co.” –The Boston Phoenix). Frank Smith, with their rootsy rock, bring Hatfield into territory she has never explored before. Banjos, pedal steel, and alternately rollicking and noir-ish guitars and keyboards blend and bounce off of each other in this eclectic 6-song EP collection of Hatfield compositions. Think of Gram Parsons dancing with the Go-Go’s. Or envision the love children of REM and Liz Phair, with Nick Cave and Gillian Welch as the godparents.

Track listing:

1. 364
2. Don't Wanna Be The One
3. A Beer And A Shot
4. If Only We Were Dogs
5. Kitten
6. On Your Mind

North American orders ($6+$2 s/h):

Orders outside North America
($6+$4 s/h):

*****

Also available now:

Track listing:

1. New Waif
2. What Do I Care
3. Stay Awake
4. On Video
5. Hole in the Sky
6. Oh
7. My Pet Lion
8. Going Blonde
9. Rats in the Attic
10. Digital Penetration
11. A Doe and Two Fawns
12. Send Money

North American orders ($10+$3 s/h):

Orders outside North America
($10+$5 s/h):

*****

Frank Smith is a band, not a man. Formed in Boston and recently relocated to frontman Aaron Sinclair’s home state of Texas, the band has a sound as vast as America.  Like the country they come from, Frank Smith reconcile countless would-be opposites, as songs from the back porch are driven straight into the noise of the city, simple folk tunes are given the most intricately complex arrangements, and the freedom of the music is constantly pulled back by the authority of the beat. All of this is masked by American deadpan at its finest in lyrics too simple to be simple: “If you want to move down the street, you have to move your feet,” “where’d you get those black and blue eyes?” and “lipstick on a pig is just lipstick on a pig.”

“Heavy Handed Peace And Love” is the band’s first release since moving from Boston to Austin, and their first release on Ye Olde Records.

Track listing:

1. Liar And A Thief
2. Throwin Rocks
3. Put Some Curtains Up
4. Home Is Where You Leave It
5. Lovesick Cynics
6. Virtually Happy
7. Ten Cent Hands
8. Ortiz Again
9. Planes And A Girl
10. Out of Air And Turning Blue

franksmithmusic.com

Hear "364" at
Frank Smith's MySpace page

North American orders ($11+$3 s/h):

Orders outside North America
($11+$5 s/h):

Ye Olde Records
P.O. Box 398110
Cambridge, MA 02139