Not every two-year period measures out the same, noted Brendan Benson, the 51-year-old Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and co-founder of The Raconteurs. Benson had just finished his well-received seventh album, Dear Life, in 2019 when his world came to a stop.
“I was rehearsing for South-By-Southwest and gearing up for a tour and had a band ready and then, of course, the world shut down,” he said in a recent interview. The lockdown then began to reroute lives, societies and ambitions worldwide.
“Everything changed,” Benson said. “I went to work on some songs so I’d have new material when things opened up.” Over months with minimal interactions, those songs coalesced and took on lives of their own, he said. Two years of semi-isolation of fading relationships, of the natural inward turn that comes with less human contact unexpectedly pushed Benson’s songwriting into new places.
Instead of being an afterthought, Benson’s solitude evolved into Low Key, the eighth album by the idiosyncratic songwriter who has enjoyed both worldwide popularity with The Raconteurs and a devoted cult following for his numerous solo projects.
Brendan Benson’s new album Low Key will be available on Limited Edition 180 gram blue vinyl and digital/streaming platforms on December 2nd via Schnitzel Records.
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