Old Man Luedecke will release his latest album ‘She Told Me Where To Go’ on 24th May 2024. The album had its genesis in the pandemic when Luedecke began going out to sea on a scallop boat in the North Atlantic, not far from his family home in rural Nova Scotia. Throughout that time, song ideas would pop in his head, and he would stash them away in his sea salt-stained notebook and battered iPhone, not sure if anything would ever come of them. During downtimes, Luedecke and his family would host all-day sap boils and wiener roasts over an open fire. A frequent visitor to these fires was Afie Jurvanen, aka Bahamas, who brought his family over for the BBQ and syrup and to chat music and play around on their guitars.
“What about not playing the banjo on your next record?” suggested Jurvanen. This was the moment that ‘She Told Me Where to Go’ was conceived. “I was a musician, a banjo player, known for my old-time Appalachian-based sound, and Afie thought that we should let go of the chains and expectations that come with writing songs around an instrument, and that I should just write the songs without the instrument in mind. He convinced me to abandon my signature sound, and I had this newfound sense of freedom in my song writing.”
Luedecke’s long-time fans need not worry; the banjo is always close at hand. There’s a treasure trove of songs that have soundtracked the lives of many, that feature that signature sound. The absence of the banjo is not forever, just for now.
You can pre-save / pre-order the record using this link.
Luedecke has released the fourth single from the album, ‘Dreadful Wind and Rain’ (not the well-known one). “It is a song about the end of travelling and the end of a couple’s fight,” says Luedecke. “The sunny morning when the big clouds are breaking up and moving off. The tune is short enough to play twice as a double shot for a good moment of driving.”
