DEER TICK "The Black Dirt Sessions"

TRACKLIST:
1. Choir Of Angels
2. Twenty Miles
3. Goodbye, Dear Friend
4. Piece By Piece And Frame By Frame
5. The Sad Sun
6. Mange
7. When She Comes Home
8. Hand In My Hand
9. I Will Not Be Myself
10. Blood Moon
11. Christ Jesus

Recorded late last year at Black Dirt Studios in upstate New York, The Black Dirt Sessions is a deeply personal record from Deer Tick's lead vocalist and songwriter John McCauley and has the sound of a band that is coming into it's own, finding it's voice and pouring it's collective heart out.

The comparisons that have often been thrust upon McCauley by the press seem to fall away as his own voice comes through more clearly. Songs like Goodbye, Dear Friend and Christ Jesus, which find McCauley alone at the piano, are about as naked as you can possibly get on record. The Black Dirt version of Christ Jesus, manages to be even more devastating than the original that appeared on War Elephant.

Clearly, the band is exploring some darker material here (like death, mortal- ity, the existence of God) than they've touched on in the past, and it suits them. Even as the Deer Tick live show has become legendary for its rau- cous, spontaneous moments (last Halloween, the band played an entire set of Sex Pistols songs in costume, flawlessly, without a single rehearsal), this record serves as proof of the band's incredible musicianship, cohesive nature and most importantly gives us a chance to witness McCauley becoming a fully formed, mature songwriter right in front of our eyes (or ears).

McCauley's talent as a musician and songwriter became apparent at an early age, performing every instrument at the age of 19 on Deer Tick's 2007 criti- cally acclaimed debut War Elephant. But McCauley's vision from the start was for Deer Tick to be a real band, and a rotating cast of characters simply wouldn't suffice.

Along came, Dennis Ryan, a hard-hitting young drummer who had just de- cided to cut his college career short, shortly followed by Chris Ryan on bass and Andrew Tobiassen on guitar. In 2009 Ian O'Neil replaced Andrew Tobias- sen on guitar, who decided to leave his previous band Titus Andronicus to join Deer Tick full time.

Deer Tick's star continued to rise in 2009, releasing their second album Born on A Flag Day. The band were praised in just about every major mu- sic publication, here and across the pond with Rolling Stone going so far as to name them "the country-rock breakthrough of the year."
Recently signed to Fargo Records in Europe (who will also make their first two albums available in the UK for the first time) Deer Tick are returning to these shores in September with festival slots confirmed at Bestival and End of The Road Festival and a UK tour to be announced shortly.

A documentary film about the band, "City of Sin", was also completed last year and should see the light of day in 2010