Curtis Eller - A Poison Melody (2019)

"A Poison Melody" is the latest and most ambitious phonographic recording by Curtis Eller's American Circus. Fans of the group have come to expect a hallucinatory, historical landscape populated by corrupt 19th century politicians, faded Hollywood stars, two-bit prize fighters and frequent, inexplicable visits from Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon. The latest batch of songs finds the cities of the United States in flames and her streets red with blood, as the specter of the 1967 Detroit riot casts a hazy shadow on a young century. The lyrics read like ransom notes painstakingly assembled from an alphabet clipped from depression-era broadsheets. Dust off that phonograph needle and get ready for another strange and unsettling platter!