steve gunn: time off

In the city we're all angling for quittin' time, laboring along and among the hours, searching and scheming for the sweet sound of those two easy words: Time Off. It's something you take -- or sometimes steal, like a thief or a baserunner -- but seems you can never get enough of it. It's regulated, rationed, and billed by volume, like water or electricity or ice cream. Sometimes you have to beg the boss for more, or even for a trifling taste. So let's make time! Let's roll the dice and get these old bones out on the road again. Steve Gunn's new album imagines the fugitive moments afforded us during time off, out, and away as occasions for dilatory investigations into our immediate environments and interiors. Time Off showcases the virtuosic guitarist and songwriter's oblique character sketches and story-songs, some of which, like 'Lurker' and 'Street Keeper,' portray specific denizens of his Brooklyn neighborhood. 'Old Strange' celebrates Jack Rose, a dear and departed friend and muse. Those contemplative studies frame Gunn's most affecting, accessible and articulate work of pure song-craft to date. His definitive statement as a songwriter, Time Off represents the culmination of nearly fifteen years of stylistic experimentation as a solo artist, a member of GHQ and the Gunn-Truscinski Duo, and more recently, as a guitarist in fellow Philadelphia-bred troubadour Kurt Vile's touring band the Violators. Gunn's first eponymous album with a full band, Time Off harnesses a core trio format to launch his compositions into new, luminous strata; the songs have evolved through disciplined trio interplay with longtime collaborator John Truscinski on drums and Justin Tripp (formerly of Aspera and Favourite Sons) on bass and guitar. Helena Espvall (Espers) also guests on cello. Steve's keen baritone voice features more prominently than ever before on these tunes, each of which feels both more rigorous and expansive than previous efforts.

Steve Gunn - Time Off (2013, PoB-08)