Korey Dane - Youngblood (2015)

After spending two years hitching on the road with nothing more than Waits, Dylan, Mitchell, The Beatles and the Stones to keep him company, Korey Dane began recording with veteran musician and record label executive Tony Berg, producer for the likes of Public Image Ltd, The Replacements and Aimee Mann. Recorded entirely in Bergs home studio Zeitgeist, what was to become Youngblood was never originally planned as an album. Instead, he whittled down dozens of songs written over that period of hitching and back in LA. A wide instrumental palette and contributions from some of LA s most sought-after session musicians helped Danes ideas come to life. A Los Angeles record at its heart, Youngblood nevertheless takes in the landscape of the whole of the USA and particular facets of its history and culture " appropriate, given Dane € s mixed Anglo-American, Cherokee and Japanese ancestry. Lead single and album opener Jules Verne , the first up-tempo song Dane wrote after being challenged by his mentor Tony Berg, demonstrates his strength as a songwriter, while closer The Lion & The Keeper pays lyrical homage to T.S. Eliot s epic poem The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock . In the tradition of Danes heroes, Youngblood isn t just an album of songs; it s a collection of stories, all filtered through one artist s singular vision.