Jesse Malin records album with Lucinda Williams – Listen

This is quite exciting for last thing on a Monday afternoon. Jesse Malin has announced ‘Sunset Kids’, his first studio album in four years, to be released August 30th and produced by Lucinda Williams. Engineered by David Bianco and Geoff Sanoff, it was recorded on both coasts between the two artists’ touring schedules and features two songs co-written by Lucinda Williams  including the first single, ‘Room 13’ which you can listen to below.

‘Room 13’ is referred to as “the heart of the record, about those meditative moments far out of your comfort zone, where you’re forced to reflect on the things that really matter,” says Malin.

Jesse Malin, who The Times says “writes vivid songs with killer tunes and sings them with scary conviction” and Lucinda Williams, who Time Magaine named “America’s best songwriter” first met at a New York City jazz club in the early 2000’s, but it was when she invited Malin to see her open for what would be the final Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 2017 that talk of her producing the album first took shape.

“From the early frontier days of hardcore in New York to all the punk rock and singer/songwriter touring,” says Malin, “it’s all been about survival and reinvention. I wanted to make an open-sounding record with the space to tell these stories. I like to write about characters and people I meet along the way. The dreamers, schemers, hustlers, romantics, lovers, leavers and believers.”

The title ‘Sunset Kids’ reflects the album’s dedication to the people Malin lost during the making of this album, including its very own engineer David Bianco (Tom Petty ‘Wildflowers’), his lifelong friend and bandmate, Todd Youth, his father and other dreamers.

Other guests that appear on the album are Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, who co-wrote and sings on ‘Strangers and Thieves,’ and singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur who appears on three tracks.

Jesse Malin hits the UK and Ireland for some dates later this month:

June 15            Brighton UK                 The Haunt
June 16            Manchester, UK           Deaf Institute
June 18            Norwich, UK                 Norwich Arts Centre
June 19            Oxford, UK                   The Bullingdon
June 20            Glasgow, UK                King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
June 21            Dublin, IR                     Whelans
June 22            Belfast, UK                   The Limelight 2