Preview: New Music from Zach Warnes

A stalwart of Seattle’s music scene via bands like Lonely Mountain Lovers and Boots To The Moon, Zach Warnes today releases GD, his first solo effort.

Recorded and performed with longtime producer and collaborator Richard Hoag at Mysterious Red X Studios in SoDo, the album is a pondering of personal relationships, depression, and the anxiety surrounding great life change. It’s also very clearly in Warnes’ wheelhouse—one that roils with Americana beauty and thunderous, bluesy guitars.

The opener, “Do You,” hits somewhere between Wilco and Conor Oberst, building slowly and then breaking into calamity, while “Just Another Life” takes a spacier 70’s-rock route. The closer, “Doin’ It Right” adds some jazzy horns to the mix, with a slow groove that feels like a contemplative night. Holistically, the five tracks of the album top out around 21 minutes, but deliver a punch of smart, thoughtful songwriting along the way.

Crafted quickly at the end of 2017 in anticipation of LML going on break and while Warnes enjoyed the pleasure of becoming a new parent, the tracks question what we all do: are we, in fact, doing it right?

Who knows. But as you dig into the distorted guitars, contemplative lyricism, and vintage-tinged harmonies of GD, you can get a pretty good sampling of Warnes’ efforts as well as his aesthetic. There is an easy warmth, weariness, and care for both these tunes and the world that created them.

Go listen to the album and make sure to catch Warnes for the record release, this Thursday at Tractor Tavern.

TICKETS
Thu, August 23 – 9 p.m.
Chris King & The Gutterballs w/ Zachary Warnes (Record Release) & Antonioni

Preview by Stephanie Dore