Molina + Johnson = Phantoms of Folk

Not Monsters of Folk, that is... check out the free MP3, below.

By Blurt Staff

They are calling this the Phantoms of Folk - "two lone wolves running together for one dark blissout of a night," says their label, Secretly Canadian, adding,  "two of the finest indie-folk songwriters of the last decade come together under the Texas sky to quietly lay to tape 14 crushing, haunting tunes, leaving space enough in each to match their surroundings."

Jason Molina and Will Johnson are familiar to you already if you're a fan of Magnolia Electric Col, Centro-matic Songs: Ohia and South San Gabriel. Now the pair have teamed up for the eponymous Molina and Johnson, due Nov. 3.

Advises the label, "Molina's documentarian, record-the-room ethos finds a home in Johnson's subtle atmospherics and production tweaks; and Molina's powerful tenor croon finds a fitting dance partner in Johnson's equally moving soft-gravel vox. While the individual performances from each are stunning in their own right, the musical mind meld that was captured is absolutely the occasion it should be."

Will Johnson gets a bit more succinct: "For ten days we wrote, co-wrote, workshopped, complimented, scrutinized, drank, invited friends to come play music, smoked, made lots of notes and drawings, drank a little more and shot the BB gun off the back porch when we just needed some time and space. In the throes of all this, our record was made in the late February sun."

The album features contributions from other musicians, such as Howard Draper, Bryan VanDivier, Scott Danbom, Magnolia Electric Co.'s Michael Kapinus and Texas songwriter Sarah Jaffe - the latter, in particular, adding plaintive vocals to "All Gone, All Gone" while  accompanied by the sound of a crying saw.

Euro tour dates below; a North American tour will be mounted in early 2010.

Molina and Johnson will be available on Secretly Canadian November 3 in the US, and November 2 in the UK. And check out the duo's European tour planned for late November and December. There will also be a North American tour coming in early 2010.

 MP3: Twenty Cycles to the Ground

TOUR DATES:

11/26 Deventer (NL), Burgerweeshuis
11/27 Ottersum (NL), Roepaen
11/28 Brussels (B), Botanique: 15 years Tout Partout
11/29 Utrecht (NL), Le Gues Who? Festival@Tivoli
11/30 Eindhoven (NL), MC Frits Philips
12/01 Winchester (UK), Railway Inn
12/02 London (UK), Garage
12/03 Manchester (UK), Deaf Institute
12/10 Barcelona (Spain), Primavera Club@Sala Be Cool
12/11 Barcelona (Spain), Primavera Club@Auditorio Montjuich
12/12 Madrid (Spain), Primavera Club@Teatro Alcazar
12/13 Lloseta-Mallorca (Spain), Teatro Lloseta
12/14 Puerto Real (Spain), Venue TBA