It’s been five years since Graham MacRae released his self-titled debut album back in 2008, and so news of an impending release should please fans of his bucolic, front-porch musings. Taking a hands-on approach to his music, both in terms of how the album was recorded and in how it is presented—he drew the cover art himself for the upcoming record—MacRae’s introspective lyrics and delicately finger-picked guitar have always stood front and center on his songs, as has his obvious affection for American traditionalists like John Fahey and Robbie Basho. But even when the tempo shifts up and the atmosphere resembles something more akin to a rowdy barroom, he never loses that sense of quiet intimacy which thoroughly pervaded his debut and that he casually lays out over the songs on Dundrearies, which is due out May 21st.
He has just released a new song from Dundrearies called “Wait,” and it is a typically elegiac acoustic-based rocker that positions MacRae somewhere between the erudite thoughtfulness of Iron & Wine and the pensive melancholy of Bill Callahan. Injecting acerbic sentiments such as “no, you can’t stay the night” and “you can’t love if you can’t lie” into a familiar narration of love gone wrong, the song sidesteps any sense of forced sentimentality.
Beats Per Minute is pleased to premiere “Wait,” the latest track from Graham MacRae’s upcoming album Dundrearies.
