The oldest songs on this album - "Mayflies" and "East Town" and "Hollows" - came in the spring of 2009. I had moved to Ohio in January on not much more than a whim, with not much more in the car than clothes and a few instruments. By the time April rolled around I was waist-deep in nostalgia for the people and places I had left behind in Massachusetts. These songs quickly became narrative windows into different times in my life, and with each draft I found myself departing more from the original recollection. Adding stuff. Changing details. Twisting the plotline. Combining three people into one character. It's not like my memories are objectively trustworthy to begin with. So I ended up with these things that scanned like fiction but felt uncomfortably close to home.
I held on to them and wrote more in the same vein. I was playing with my band Old Hundred at the time and we gave a few a shake but they never quite gelled, and I began thinking they might need their own platform.
In 2014 I finally bought a halfway decent microphone and started recording at home. At first it was in this little spare room upstairs. Then it was in a corner of the unfinished basement, gear haphazardly strewn, often with the baby monitor just waiting to go off beside the laptop. Drums we recorded in Jon Helm's basement. Two years of overdubs and a set of twins later (I don't recommend this combination if you're in a rush), I'm psyched that it's finally ready for sharing. I'm guessing (hoping) some other stories are waiting for a turn.
The budget only allowed a digital release but this thing is definitely old-fashioned at heart: an album with artwork commissioned to satisfy my inner 14-year old, the one who used to spend hours poring over the liner notes to every CD I laid hands on, from Siamese Dream to my dad's Paul Simon box set. Do people still do that?
At this point, Solitaires is no longer a one-man band. Thank god. Not much fun in that. I've swapped the mandolin for an acoustic, Hal Hixson's on bass, Jon Helm's on guitar, Ryan Stolte-Sawa's on keys and guitar, and Jonny Barton's on drums and the occasional glockenspiel. We're making a lively racket. Hope to see you soon at a show.
Nate Gelinas
April 2016
