STAN RIDGWAY "Neon Mirage" / A440 Records
NEW ALBUM IS ARTIST’S MOST ECLECTIC AND REVEALING
Wall of Voodoo frontman is flanked by Dave Alvin, Pietra Wexstun, Ralph Carney, Rick King and the late Amy Farris
"Music is more than just chords and notes to me, it has the ability to make pictures in the mind. My records are designed to be seen as well as heard. There’s a weird old American jukebox in my head and it still plays everything that’s ever got under my skin." -- Stan Ridgway
Does a songwriter chase his muse – or is it the other way ‘round? That’s but one of the intriguing notions at the heart of Stan Ridgway’s 2010 release, Neon Mirage, arguably the most refined, yet musically eclectic collection of the veteran L.A. singer-songwriter/Wall of Voodoo founder’s career. “You never really have a choice about the tone and subject matter of the records you make,” Ridgway confides. “At least I don’t. They’re obsessions, really. It’s about the music, and how it heals the mind.” When Stan lost a beloved uncle, a colleague (Texas violinist Amy Farris, whose brilliant Neon Mirage work serves as fitting elegy), and the man who inspired so much of the musician’s own worldview, his own father, during the album’s writing/recording, Ridgway responded with some of the most reflective – if no less joyous – songs he’d ever recorded. “Events like that can’t help but have an impact on the music you’re making at the time,” Stan admits. "You’d be lying to yourself — and your listeners — if you thought otherwise. I've probably confused people with my music, my choices, the albums and the changes in direction from year to year. But I can’t help it. There’s a weird old American jukebox in my head and it still plays everything that’s ever got under my skin.”
Stan Ridgway Website: http://www.stanridgway.com
