Townsend’s Solitaire have a nice dedication to the Tracks feature, here they are pictured actually sitting and standing on tracks. Guys – we really appreciate the effort. The sharp eyed viewer may have already spotted the Bolt Thrower T-shirt, and that would of course raise a not unreasonable thought that what is to come has links to Death Metal and the good ol’ GW WH40K world. Well, no and yes – as Bobby Odle, who formed Townsend’s Solitaire, spent his teenage years playing progressive metal, he then studied classical percussion. In 2021 Odle was awarded a Master’s Degree in music from Southern Oregon University. It was during this time in Ashland that he picked up guitar again, learned to fingerpick, and started to write folk songs.
Townsend’s Solitaire are preparing to release their debut album ‘Glad To Be Alive’ following on from two EPs. The six piece band comprises Odle on guitar and vocals, pianist Elle Castelli, flautist Emma McGuire, violinist Kirill Polyanskiy, cellist Nathan Moore, and Steven Higbee on clarinet, bass clarinet, and the ever popular ocarina. Every member of the band has been playing classical music their whole life, with the vast majority having at least one degree in music. ‘Glad To Be Alive‘ is an album touched by sadness and struggles with suicidal ideation, touching on the death from cancer of Odle’s older brother at a young age, and of the passing of a close friend – the subject of ‘Dear Old Friend‘.
Songwriter and lead singer Bobby Odle told Americana UK a little about the song: “‘Dear Old Friend’ is the first track on our upcoming LP ‘Glad To Be Alive’ and it is an homage to my childhood best friend, Tanner James, who took his own life in the early spring of 2023. His family and mine were friends growing up – his older brother and my late older brother, Chris, were friends and so were our little sisters. This song is a tender expression of mundane and adolescent memories of my first best friend and a song of empathy for his family imagining what my family went through when we lost Chris. I also empathize deeply with Tanner’s situation and explore what it feels like to struggle with suicidal ideation and to learn of someone you love taking their life and the complex feelings within this paradigm.”
