FRANKIE LEE SHARES NEW SONG “HIGH AND DRY”
DEBUT ALBUM AMERICAN DREAMER OUT JULY 8
PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE NOW
JUNE 2016 TOUR WITH ESMÉ PATTERSON
“A delicate blend of country songwriting and indie rock sensibilities.”
-Rolling Stone
“The hot tarmac romance of a roots rocking War On Drugs.”
★★★★
MOJO
“A rich and understated debut.”
8/10
-Uncut
“American Dreamer is an album with brutally honest lyrics, real cowboy grit,
and that perfect balance of roughly hewn hooks and polished melodies.”
-Line of Best Fit
Singer-songwriter Frankie Lee has released the second song from his debut album, American Dreamer, out July 8 (Loose/Thirty Tigers). The timeless jangle of “High and Dry” follows “Where Do We Belong,” which Rolling Stone premiered last month; both are mesmerizing tracks from this soon-to-be-released deep collection of spellbinding songs
“All my friends think ‘High and Dry’ is about growing your own weed,” Lee told Line of Best Fit. “But I wrote it about farmers growing their own food… I guess that’s the same thing really. What you are is what you eat and the other way around.”
American Dreamer is “Nostalgia for the Future.”
Frankie Lee is a Midwesterner by birth and a traveler by nature. His father was in the horse business, and the family moved around a lot — Michigan, Texas, Minnesota, Tennessee, among other places — which accounts for his sometimes vague answers to questions of where he “comes from.” Lee spent a couple years in college before dropping out to become a folksinger. (Lee often returned to Minnesota in subsequent years, spending entire summers, he said, working alone on a farm.)
He moved to Austin, TX, and got his first paying gigs on the folk/country scene. He played clubs like the Scoot Inn and the Longbranch where he met JT Van Zandt (who he later worked for) who introduced him around the up and coming East Austin scene.
After almost seven years in Austin, it was off to Los Angeles. The first show he played in LA was with an up and coming band named Dawes. As time went by, it was obvious Lee didn’t belong in LA, but he stayed a few more years chasing the music and the women only to find he couldn’t keep up with either.
After 10 years away, he returned home with a bag of new songs and recorded them right away. Minneapolis was the right fit for the sound he had in his head at the time. A band was assembled through drummer JT Bates that included Jeremy Ylvisaker (Andrew Bird) and Mike Lewis (Bon Iver) amongst others. Most of the songs were cut live the first night and appeared as they were on Lee’s locally released EP Middle West.
It was Middle West that connected him to a wider world and American Dreamer that brought him there. American Dreamer was recorded over a period of time he spent working on a pig farm and living in St. Paul, the songs were written in the early morning commutes from city to country. That’s where these songs sit best, opening up as you get further away: a vision from a man alone in time, capturing the sound where dreams and reality meet. The album was released in England in 2015 by London label Loose, who were the first label to sign the likes of Sturgill Simpson, The Felice Brothers, Hurray For The Riff Raff.
AMERICAN DREAMER
July 8, 2016
Tracklisting:
High and Dry
Where Do We Belong
Queen of Carolina
East Side Blues
Black Dog
Buffalo
Honest Man
Know By Now
Horses
American Dreamer
ALBUM PRE-ORDER:
Frankie Lee Tour Dates:
JUNE
22 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge
23 – Los Angeles, CA – Resident
25 – Davis, CA – Sophia’s Thai Kitchen
27 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw
28 – Bend, OR – Volcanic Theater Pub
29 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
30 – Seattle, WA – Barboza
*All June dates with Esmé Patterson
JULY
08 – Minneapolis, MN – Electric Fetus In-Store
09 – St. Paul, MN – Turf Club
14 – Duluth, MN – Red Herring Lounge
SEPTEMBER
17 – Shakopee, MN – Festival Paolomino
