Joseph LeMay Is On Tour Supporting Debut Album ‘Seventeen Acres’ Crafted in an Abandoned Singlewide Trailer on Seventeen Acres in Tennessee Telling Stories of Desolation and Commitment
Joseph LeMay has been receiving many accolades since the independent release of his debut album Seventeen Acres in the spring of 2014. Rolling Stone Country’s Steve Betts wrote, “LeMay has crafted one of the best Americana albums of the year.” Elmore ’s Jim Hynes goes on to say, “If you didn’t know better, you’d think this might be a Paul Simon or Band of Horses album in terms of sound…”
LeMay will be touring solo with Seventeen Acres this April, opening for Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek, who also has a new album, All I Do Is Lie. The tour kicks off in Texas with shows in Houston, Austin, and Dallas. They stop in Oklahoma City before a couple of performances in Missouri in Kansas City and St Louis and then head into the midwest to Indianapolis, IN, and Evanston, Il. The tour closes in Denver, Colorado at Daniels Hall @ Swallow Hill.
Although a newcomer to the scene, LeMay has been developing his voice as a songwriter and producer for several years, observing and working with his longtime mentor and veteran producer, Charlie Peacock (The Civil Wars, Brett Dennen, Switchfoot, The Lone Bellow). LeMay’s ability to tastefully wear the hats of both artist and producer is what makes his Seventeen Acres stand out as an album of note.
PopDose’s Keith Creighton says of Seventeen Acres, “Rarely has an album by a complete unknown hit me like a ton of bricks the way Joseph LeMay’s stunning debut has… an insanely promising artist…Seventeen Acres’ appeal extends way beyond the boundaries of the current Americana boom. Fans of Crowded House, Tom Petty, Iron & Wine, Paul Simon and countless others will welcome the tales of this gifted storyteller.”
“Music fulfills a need,” says LeMay. “It’s communicating across mediums. We don’t just want words. It’s the color and the canvas. The cadence and the lyric.” It’s with a balanced grasp of bare truth and pursuit of grace that LeMay channels this primal need in the desolation of his Seventeen Acres.
Joseph LeMay On Tour Opening For Sean Watkins This April 4/14 Tue – Mucky Duck – Houston, TX
4/16 Thu – Cactus Cafe – Austin, TX
4/17 Fri – Uncle Calvin’s Coffeehouse – Dallas, TX
4/18 Sat – Blue Door – Oklahoma City, OK
4/19 Sun – Knuckleheads Saloon – Kansas City, MO
4/21 Tue – Stage at KDHX – St Louis, MO
4/23 Thu – The Hi-Fi – Indianapolis, IN
4/24 Fri – SPACE – Evanston, IL
4/26 Sun – Daniels Hall @ Swallow Hill – Denver, CO
Joseph LeMay has been receiving many accolades since the independent release of his debut album Seventeen Acres on May 20th, 2014. Although a newcomer to the scene, LeMay has been developing his voice as a songwriter and producer for several years, observing and working with his longtime mentor and veteran producer, Charlie Peacock (The Civil Wars, Brett Dennen, Switchfoot, The Lone Bellow). LeMay’s ability to tastefully wear the hats of both artist and producer is what makes his Seventeen Acres stand out as an album of note.
LeMay has been named as one of the 25 finalists by American Songwriter for American Songspace’s Secret Road Pub Deal songwriting competition. CMT Edge recently premiered a video of “Redwing” performed live inside the trailer in which the album came to be, a song which CMT Edge’s Chris Parton calls a “careful, patiently swelling track.”
PopDose’s Keith Creighton says of Seventeen Acres, “Rarely has an album by a complete unknown hit me like a ton of bricks the way Joseph LeMay’s stunning debut has…The music is an exquisite tapestry of Americana and Country… a stellar debut from an insanely promising artist… Seventeen Acres’ appeal extends way beyond the boundaries of the current Americana boom. Fans of Crowded House, Tom Petty, Iron & Wine, Paul Simon and countless others will welcome the tales of this gifted storyteller.”
“It is a love story of ‘two old teenagers’ told over a dusty Americana arrangement… LeMay hits both notes & emotional buttons in his delivery,” writes Danny McCloskey of The Alternate Root. “His vocals have a tone a little like Jim James, particularly on ‘Fruit on the Vine’. Both singers offer a barely disguised falsetto that seems to always be hinting that it could break free.”
The story of Seventeen Acres began unfolding when LeMay and his new bride, Molly, packed up their belongings and moved out of the hustle of Nashville and into a singlewide trailer in West Tennessee on her grandfather’s hand-me-down 17 acre farm. They patched up the old trailer, cleared the grass that had grown up through the cracks on the floors, freed the space of copperheads and spiders, and sorted through decades of stacked boxes filled with old family memories.
Joseph found himself in a drastically new season of life. He was a married man, alone in the woods, between two towns you’ve never heard of. With little to do but reflect and work on his craft, LeMay’s new life and songwriting began to grow alongside one another. They tangled to form the tapestry of reflection, prophecy, and fulfillment that became Seventeen Acres.
“It’s like sitting under a magnifying glass,” says LeMay of the isolation of rural Tennessee. “Writing this record, I was constantly alone and in a period of self-doubt. I was worried I wouldn’t measure up as a new husband and as a songwriter, more or less thrown out in the wilderness.”
“His music embodies the story-teller tradition of country/roots music,” notes American Songwriter. “His sound harkens back to a calmer, peaceful era and creates a timelessness that makes it easy to engage the listener.”
“Music fulfills a need,” says LeMay. “It’s communicating across mediums. We don’t just want words. It’s the color and the canvas. The cadence and the lyric.” It’s with a balanced grasp of bare truth and pursuit of grace that LeMay channels this primal need in the desolation of his Seventeen Acres.
“Joseph LeMay has become one of my favourite new performers. When listening to his debut album Seventeen Acres I hear a world of influence, many of them likely imagined: Mumford & Sons, Bon Iver (with whom LeMay shares a penchant of secluded recording situations), Tom Petty, and ’80s Dylan.”
—Fervor Coulee, Donald Teplyske
“…Joseph LeMay has hand-crafted something beautiful…and he has to take care of it…This takes perseverance, nerves of iron, commitment and doesn’t come without built-in desperation and fear. The songs he writes, produces and sings…are rooted in his own experience. They’re true. And that makes them more profound than if they came whole-cloth out of his imagination. He’s an arresting singer too and once you get caught up with how much of a trap life could be—with the advice that it’s up to all of us to rise up and out—the songs start to come alive in your mind, especially with repeated listenings. Remember all those “new-Dylan” tags put on artists as far-ranging as Springsteen, Donovan, Wainwright III and Ochs? Let’s do it again! Joseph LeMay is the Dylan Of The Farm.”
—Aquarian Weekly’s Rant and Roll, Mike Greenblatt
“This guy came out of nowhere as far as I can tell, but this album is good enough to have writers all over putting it on their lists as an album of worth. I could say that he is a singer/songwriter but the music is so good it sets itself apart. I mean, this guy can write! …He is going to be big even in this era of struggling musicians. And I wish I could say that I was the first to tell you, but his train is gaining steam as I write. This album is a step above.”
—Frank Gutch Jr, Bob Segarini Blog
“Joseph knows what he wants to say and how to say it and he captures those natural abilities very well as he sits behind the board in the production chair. The subtleties are given front row seats; the slight ticking from the pick hitting nylon acoustic guitar strings and the between note breaths caught in the vocals.”
—The Alternate Root, Danny McCloskey
“My feet start tapping and my head is nodding once ‘Crazy Woman’’s four count delivers a southern-funky-Tennessee kind of skins and strings groove.”
—Grateful Music, Dan Fugate
“…a satisfying and intriguing piece of alt-country and Americana. Seventeen Acres matches engrossing stories with intimate harmonies, comforting keys and confident guitar strokes.”
—No Country for New Nashville, Wes Davenport
Joseph LeMay Celebrates the Release of Debut Album, Seventeen Acres, TODAY May 20th Stories of Desolation and Commitment From a Singlewide Trailer on Seventeen Acres in Tennessee
Find Seventeeen Acres on iTunes: http://bit.ly/JosephLeMay_iTunes
LISTEN to the title track of the album at American Songwriter: http://bit.ly/1mhIHE1
“LeMay reminds me of some of the odd men out in the music world of the early 70s— artists such as Jim Dawson and Stu Nunnery and Bill Puka…There is a slight James Taylor feel to some of the songs, a couple are straight out of Jim Dawson’s playbook, and others less specific— all impressive and a few damn good.” —Frank Gutch Jr, Bob Segarini Blog
ASHEVILLE, NC — Songwriter Joseph LeMay is excited to celebrate the release of his new album Seventeen Acres today, Tuesday, May 20, 2014.
Before patching up the old trailer in West Tennessee, grass grew through cracks on the floor and copperheads mingled between decades of stacked boxes on a grandfather’s hand-me-down farm. It was in this abandoned singlewide that Americana artist Joseph LeMay cleared a space for his new life as a married man and Seventeen Acres, his first full-length release.
LeMay began performing at an age when most kids are focused on learning the alphabet. Just barely a teen, the young musician could add Showtime at the Apollo, an opening gig for Brian Wilson and a countless line of county fairs across the southeast to his list of growing accomplishments. This passion for music continued to manifest during high school as LeMay took to writing and moved to New York in search of work as a performer.
During his time in Manhattan, LeMay’s musical future bent when he met music veteran Charlie Peacock, producer of The Civil Wars and The Lone Bellow. LeMay moved to Nashville and spent hours as a silent observer of Peacock as artists passed through his studio. Witnessing the life of a working musician changed Joseph, inspiring him to find his voice.
Joseph LeMay. Photo by Juan Solorzano.
But it wasn’t long before LeMay found himself in an age-old Nashville ritual- working a part-time job to pay the bills and creating on the side. “After making sandwiches for 60 hours a week, it’s hard to find the energy and time to do the work you want,” says LeMay. To escape the inevitable pace their life was heading, he and his new wife made a drastic change of scenery and moved into that forgotten trailer on her family’s inherited farm on the outskirts of Dyersburg, Tenn.
“It was like sitting under a magnifying glass,” says LeMay of the isolation of rural Tennessee. “I was constantly alone and in a period of self-doubt. I was worrying how I would measure up as new husband, more or less thrown out in the wilderness.” The intensity of his self-examination led to what we now know as Seventeen Acres.
Filled with stories of dissecting the nuances of love and uncertainty, Seventeen Acres was produced by LeMay himself and came to life in the same space the stories originated. Joining LeMay as his band on the album are Juan Solorzano (electric guitar), Noah Denney (drums, bass, percussion), Caleb Hickman (keys, lap steel, banjo), Molly Parden (backing vocals), Eleonore Denig (violin), Austin Hoke (Cello) and Ben Jones (upright bass).
Songs like “Fruit on the Vine” and “Warrant for My Worry” ache with missed expectations and hope in their draught, while “Molly My Girl” and “Just So” are timeless tales of endearing love. Start to finish, LeMay’s labor is driven by this love and all the desperation, fear and commitment that comes with it.
“Music fulfills a need,” says LeMay. “It’s communicating across mediums. We don’t just want words. It’s the color and the canvas. The cadence and the lyric.” It’s with a balanced grasp of bare truth and pursuit of grace that LeMay channels this primal need in the desolation of his Seventeen Acres.
Joseph LeMay Set To Release “Seventeen Acres” On May 20th
Stories of Desolation and Commitment From a Singlewide Trailer on Seventeen Acres in Tennessee
Before patching up the old trailer in West Tennessee, grass grew through cracks on the floor and copperheads mingled between decades of stacked boxes on a grandfather’s hand-me-down farm. It was in this abandoned singlewide that Americana artist Joseph LeMay cleared a space for his new life as a married man and Seventeen Acres, his first full-length release which is set for release on Tuesday, May 20, 2014.
Filled with stories of dissecting the nuances of love and uncertainty, Seventeen Acres was produced by LeMay himself and came to life in the same space the stories originated. Songs like “Fruit on the Vine” and “Warrant for My Worry” ache with missed expectations and hope in their draught, while “Molly My Girl” and “Just So” are timeless tales of endearing love. Start to finish, LeMay’s labor is driven by this love and all the desperation, fear and commitment that comes with it.
“Music fulfills a need,” says LeMay. “It’s communicating across mediums. We don’t just want words. It’s the color and the canvas. The cadence and the lyric.” It’s with a balanced grasp of bare truth and pursuit of grace that LeMay channels this primal need in the desolation of his Seventeen Acres.
LeMay began performing at an age when most kids are focused on learning the alphabet. Just barely a teen, the young musician could add Showtime at the Apollo, an opening gig for Brian Wilson and a countless line of county fairs across the southeast to his list of growing accomplishments. This passion for music continued to manifest during high school as LeMay took to writing and moved to New York in search of work as a performer.
During his time in Manhattan, LeMay’s musical future bent when he met music veteran Charlie Peacock, producer of The Civil Wars and The Lone Bellow. LeMay moved to Nashville and spent hours as a silent observer of Peacock as artists passed through his studio. Witnessing the life of a working musician changed LeMay, inspiring him to find his voice.
It wasn’t long before LeMay found himself in an age-old Nashville ritual- working a part-time job to pay the bills and creating on the side. “After making sandwiches for 60 hours a week, it’s hard to find the energy and time to do the work you want,” says LeMay. To escape the inevitable pace their life was heading, LeMay and his new wife made a drastic change of scenery and moved into that forgotten trailer on her family’s inherited farm on the outskirts of Dyersburg, Tenn.
“It’s like sitting under a magnifying glass,” says LeMay of the isolation of rural Tennessee. “Writing this record, I was constantly alone and in a period of self-doubt. I was worried I wouldn’t measure up as a new husband and as a songwriter, more or less thrown out in the wilderness.” The intensity of his self-examination led to what we now know as Seventeen Acres.
Dreamspider Publicity is excited to be working with Joseph LeMay on his upcoming studio album release! Stay tuned for details on that and in the meantime check out his LIVE 3-song EP “TRAILER TRASH” which is officially out today on Noisetrade as a FREE DOWNLOAD. Get it here: http://noisetrade.com/josephlemay/trailer-trash-live-ep
Joseph LeMay’s Trailer Trash EP is a good indication of what’s to come from the Tennessee bred songwriter. The live EP, released via Noisetrade, gives us a barebones glimpse of three songs from his upcoming debut album Seventeen Acres performed in the same room in which they were written.
For more about Joseph Lemay and to stay up-to-date on tour dates and the upcoming studio album, please visit: http://josephlemaymusic.com.
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