MRG Recordings | Craig Gore
CRAIG GORE
Bourbon Cigarettes is not just the title of a standout track from Craig Gore's forthcoming release Ten Year Sleep , it is a phrase that conjures the feel of his music and suggests the circumstances under which the album's songs could have been composed. Bar ballads in the best possible sense, his work is reminiscent of both the melancholic wit of early Tom Waits and the beautiful misery of Elliott Smith.
Gore's songs are unabashedly honest, unafraid to traffic in pain, all the while remaining sincerely poetic and never growing overly maudlin. His sound is at times a little bit country, at times a little bit rock-and-roll, always meticulously crafted. His world-weary croon lends narrative authenticity to his thoughtful lyrics--words that passionately illuminate the complexity of modern relationships and the suffering we all endure in the name of love.
It comes as no surprise to find that Gore has always had a way with words. It started with his grandmother, who read Walt Whitman and other poets to him as a boy, instilling in him a life-long love of words, verse, and literature. Gore was born and raised in Nashville, TN, the son of a musical family: his father Addison a musical theater composer, his brother Bentley now of the LA band King Straggler. As a kid, eclectic sounds filled his house, from Paul Simon and the Beatles to The Who, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and even the Violent Femmes.
His first instrument was the drums, then later the piano. In college, he finally picked up the guitar--if only to impress a girl. The girl may be long gone, but the guitar remains on the scene. After college, he landed in Los Angeles for a time, playing solo, acoustic shows, then returning to Nashville and buying an electric guitar. After plugging in and making some noise around town, he scored a publishing deal with Sony Nashville.
Criss-crossing between Los Angeles and New York, he kept gigging while working on the publishing deal and recording demos. He furthered the musical education begun in his youth by studying John Hiatt and James Taylor, as well as many great-unknown Nashville songwriters from his youth.
An avid painter, Gore would often work on large canvases to put off his other main vocation--songwriting. His demos emerged as straight-up rock-and-roll and he was disappointed with the outcome. He found a clearer path when a friend listened and told him he was aiming for the wrong genre, that he was denying his roots and needed to go more Southern, more Americana: the folk music of the singer-songwriter. He relented and began working on what he called roots music.
Influenced by the diverse output of artists such as Beck, Jeff Buckley, Steve Earle, Bright Eyes, Sufjan Stevens, and Iron and Wine, Gore self-financed Ten Year Sleep was recorded at Scott Weiland's studio in Burbank. His friend was right. Finally, Gore's music sounded right to him. It sounded like him. Always the consummate artist, he even did the album's artwork. For now, he's sticking around in LA, perhaps tapping into the city's long, influential strain of singer-songwriter history that winds up Sunset Blvd and into the canyons above.
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