Michael Cerveris -- PIETY -- CD (GIB002)
Michael Cerveris -- PIETY -- CD (GIB002)
Michael Cerveris has shared stages with artists as varied as Pete Townshend, Frank Black, The Breeders, and Teenage Fanclub and was guitarist on Bob Mould's 1998 Last Dog And Pony Show tour of the US and UK. Raised in West Virginia and dividing his time between a home New Orleans and work in New York, Cerveris returns to his southern roots as singer and songwriter with this lushly orchestrated, melodic Americana album produced by Mark Bingham and recorded in the final days of Piety Studios in New Orleans with a host of beloved local artists and friends including Anders Osborne, Mia Borders, Paul Sanchez, Shamarr Allen, Alex MacMurray, Rod Hodges (Iguanas), Linzay Young (Red Stick Ramblers), and Kimberly Kaye (Loose Cattle). Lush string arrangements by Jimbo Walsh elevate these songs reminiscent of classic 70s songwriters--Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, a southern Harry Nilsson, or Nick Drake with a dash of Van Dyke Parks--combined with echoes of more modern classic writers like Elliott Smith.