Ward White is a singer and songwriter living in Brooklyn, New York. He also plays the guitar. Ward has made several records that you may enjoy. His latest, Maybe, But Probably Not, is available now.
Built on solo acoustic demos for an upcoming album, Maybe, But Probably Not is a record conceived in reverse: Rather than attempting to recreate the energy of the single take recordings in a traditional studio environment Ward chose to follow their lead, eventually layering drums, bass, and string quartet to achieve a sonority he describes as "pleasantly disjointed". The nine songs on MBPN balance the immediacy of the performances (no changes were made to the original vocal or guitar tracks) with the complexity of interweaving string lines to showcase Ward's lyrics, the core of the album.
String arrangements and brevity aside, two records that informed the shaping of MBPN are Colin Blunstone's ethereal One Year and John Cale's seminal Paris 1919. "I kept returning to those records during the process of making this album - in my mind both are marvels of economy, taste, and strange beauty."
Anchored by Ward's voice and guitar, Maybe, But Probably Not features lush string arrangements from Claudia Chopek (Loser's Lounge, Shelby, Cerveris) and drums courtesy of Nigel Rawles, one half of the late lamented NYC band, Scout.
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