“She’s
like the girlfren’ of Jonathan Richman, the sister of the Stanley
Brothers and the daughter of Jack White”
London-based
country/rockabilly songwriter Lou Psyche alias Lil’ Lost Lou here
presents her debut solo album. Not one to do things by halves, she
travelled alone to Nashville to work with revered producer,
songwriter and musician Billy Livsey, a man with the likes of Ronnie
Lane, Kenny Rogers, Tanya Tucker and George Strait on his CV.
Setting
up in the analogue Welcome To 1979 Studios (housed in a former
Motown, Chess and RCA pressing plant), Livsey corralled the cream of
Music City sessioneers, including bassist Dave Roe (Johnny Cash, Chet
Atkins, Sturgill Simpson); pedal-steel player Russ Pahl (Glen
Campbell, Patty Loveless, Kacey Musgraves); guitarist Stuart Mathis
(Chris Isaak, Lucinda Williams), and drummer Justin Amaral (Junior
Brown, Tommy Womack).
Let’s
let Lou tell the story.... “This Nashville LP was about finishing a
journey. It’s a bit more slick than my London skiffle punk/country
band, but It’s still pretty raw and I think it has a great
cross-cultural sound going on . I’m still so excited that these
amazing guys wanted to collaborate on it.
“The
last song on the album, ‘Song for Bob Dylan’, I wrote 20 years
ago in New York just before my dad died. I’d heard a poem by Dylan
called ‘Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie’, which said, ‘If it’s
hope that you’re seeking …you’ll find it at the Grand Canyon at
sundown”. Last year I finally flew back out to the USA to see the
Grand Canyon. I watched the sun go down, then caught a train across
America. 32 hours later I arrived in Nashville, Tennessee where I
recorded that same song about the Grand Canyon that I wrote 20 years
beforehand. In 12 hours we had recorded a whole album.”
Once
Lou was back in the UK, finishing touches were applied to the album
with the help of producer Sean Kenny at his Ten21 Studio in
Maidstone.
Born
and raised in Camden Town, Lou has shared stages with the likes of
Wanda Jackson, Billy Childish, Pete
Doherty, Wilko Johnson, The Urban Voodoo Machine and Fat White Family
and sang ‘Don’t Bogart That Joint’ over the closing credits
of the 2010 film Mr Nice.
She plays an Epiphone Casino guitar.
"Lou
attacks each song here like a train coming down the track,
full-pelt!" Country
Music
“One
of those rare finds, like finding a £20 note behind the back of your
old sofa. You don't expect anything but by the end there's a big old
smile on yer face!” FATEA
“Of
all the women haunting the secret smog filled outsider art scene in
London, Lou is by far the sassiest and dirtiest of them all. A
princess of a weird dark country/punk night life.” AAAmusic.com
