David Dondero 'Simple Love' album

From the acclaimed songwriting troubadour David Dondero comes Simple Love, David’s second release for Conor Oberst’s Team Love Records, and the follow up to the critically lauded 2005 release, South of the South. Few songwriters have experienced and expressed the sinking depths and uplifting optimism of humanity like David Dondero, and his ability to shine a light on the human condition (his own included) is inspiring. Dondero is best known for his narrative tales of America. Having spent most of his life on the road, Dave uses his staggering lyrical talent to paint tales of life in the US of A through clever word play and sarcastic humor (as represented in the album title) about some of life’s most sensitive subjects. Simple Love is a poignant collection of songs woven with sentimentality, contempt, humor, and lust.

Simple Love was recorded and produced by Mike Vasquez in Austin, TX at Sweatbox Studios immediately after the original Sweatbox was burned to the ground. Ringing in the new and celebrating the old, David recruited long-time friend Craig D, Dave’s drummer and tour companion, as well as some of Austin’s best local musicians to accompany him during the sessions. Recorded on tape with minimal overdubs, the record features many new songs and a handful of unreleased tracks.

Veering away from the acoustic folk arrangements of previous albums, Simple Love, broadens its instrumental library and tackles much darker subjects of loss, lost love and death. Dondero sings “Rothko Chapel” about a non-denominational church in Texas which has blank paintings by Mark Rothko, meant to evoke soul discovery, strung about the walls. Spending an interesting summer in Alaska (“The Prince William Sound”), escaping reality at a favorite spot (“Mighty Mississippi”), feeling “stuck” in Oakland, CA (“Stuck on the Moon”), and an often requested live favorite about a Golden Gate bridge “jumper” (“Double Murder Ballad Suicide”) connect the highway lines into a collection of literate, impressionistic, folk-blues mini-epics.

“my religion is in nature, art and literacy/my religion is in science, music and poetry/my religion's in the mountains, my church is in the seas/my religion is to love you yet my church is entropy/my religion's in your eyes yet my church aint organized/my faith is in the sweetness that you might realize but my faith it could be fiction”- “Rothko Chapel”: Simple Love

“One of the best singer/songwriters I’ve ever heard.”- NPR- All Songs Considered host- Bob Boilen

“I view this album as a continuation. Like a new batch of photos mixed with a couple old ones found tucked under between the seats of your car.” – David Dondero

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David Dondero - Simple Love