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It happened a long way from home. The challenge was to become a man.Kenny Tudrick was drumming by the age of eight. By nine, he’d booked his first gig at the elementary school. By 17, it was time to split. Alone in his ’78 Chevy big block – a Phillips-head, some duct tape, and razor his only emergency equipment – the teenage Tudrick looked westward, challenging himself to survive and adapt. The youngest son of a Glasgow-native mother and a Canadian father who expatriated to the States to fight in the Vietnam War, Tudrick’s impulse to see the country for which his father had fought was more than a road trip, it was a pilgrimage. Finding himself immersed in jobs, travelling from one nowhere town to another, the teenager would spend months living in one-room apartments, many times without a phone. He remained on the road for 3 years, filling his days with blue collar labor, coming home at night to an empty room and a guitar.“That’s when I manned up,” Tudrick explains. He remembers the seclusion well, and how it fed the scary-but-somehow-obvious notion that music was what he had to do with his life. He left Detroit as a drummer, but came back a multi-instrumentalist and the kind of songwriter only a man with perspective can become.Upon returning home, Tudrick was aggressively sought after, working with a lion’s share of the early aught Detroit garage rock revival outfits. He did studio work on future gold and platinum records (sometimes anonymously, as to respect the novices for whom he was covering) and, of course, writing hit songs for and touring with Kid Rock. Uncompromising and loyal, many credit Tudrick with steadying the course of perennially awesome (albeit somewhat dysfunctional) Detroit Cobras, a band for whom he has drummed for years. Most recently, Tudrick played drums on Sub-Pop Records’ indie godhead King Tuff’s latest self-titled LP. And while both the Cobras and King Tuff approached Tudrick to tour with them this summer, he eschewed the payday, instead taking a leap of faith—this time, betting on himself.“I am doing what I should have been doing. 18 years later, I’m putting out my debut album.”Tudrick’s eponymous debut is nothing short of prolific. Years of ideas, melodies, bridges and refrains stockpiled over the years came pouring out; and the result was a 19-song double album, each track more beautifully crafted than the last. This debut is a love letter, a look inward, a rally cry and a mea culpa. It’s a fully formed recording steeped in high musical tastes, Americana, gorgeous singing, masterful musicianship and deep, low-down emotion. The songs range from acoustic fingerstyle to soaring compositions. Breaking free from ego-centricities with a rarified raw honesty, at times, Tudrick is positively Steinbeckian. The whopping 19 tracks are an unusual amalgam of masculine energy and compassion. He is a man who has seen life for better and for worse, uttering phrases like “All I ever wanted was to be fine,”…he is a man who has fallen in love, and you can hear it. Despite its complexity, the double record was created entirely by Tudrick himself (save for a couple piano parts) in his living room and kitchen. He approached the production the same way a band does. Sans irony, he created various characters for himself —Jimmy “Two Teeth” a standout — to cull together the final heartbreakingly impressive piece of work. Drums first, guitar next, layering and layering until his debut album—18 years in the works—shone.
Condition:NEW. Brand New Factory Sealed
TRACK LISTINGS
1. Long Way from Home 4:12
2. Bird That Flew 4:57
3. Cadillac Lake 4:59
4. Lightning Lights the Way 6:13
5. Harmony Sand 4:50
6. Stand Tall 4:53
7. Can't Be Saved 4:08
8. Water Into Wine 3:39
9. Angels Pass 3:17
10. Devil 5:34
11. The River 4:19
12. Colorblind 3:28
13. Moonshine 3:05
14. I'm Gonna Love Yours 3:24
15. Sun Down 5:15
16. Know Good 5:00
17. All Aboard 2:12
18. Crutch 5:23
19. The Ninth 5:02
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