A three song advance will be released on the American Music Partners label in January as a preview of the forthcoming John Cate & the Van Gogh Brothers record titled Painting with Van Gogh. "Sacred Wheel" is the lead track from the new record, the song was co-written with Scarlet Rivera, who became known as a member of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review. Scarlet also played on every track on Bob Dylan's Desire and went on to a career as a professional violinist with many other national touring acts including Indigo Girls and others. The song, an ode to fate and destiny with a little Karma thrown in for good measure is a treat. John and the band turn in a masterful performance of a song reminiscent of an old Tom Petty chestnut.
"Before Those Shadows Start To Fall" is a slow tempo love song layered with percussion, vocals, and beautiful guitars. The band has increased in size over the years and now with Quinn - drums/percussion (Kanye, Daft Punk, etc), Paul Candilore - electric guitars, Clayton Young - bass, Steve Latt - pedal steel, Brian Jenkins - vocals, Scarlet Rivera - Violin and, for the very first time, on vocals (the last person who asked her to sing was Dylan), Hal Winer - electric guitar, John Cate - acoustic guitars, lead vocals, and John Durrill (5 Americans, Ventures) - harmonies, piano.
The final song on the advance is simply titled That Old House a tune that was co-written by JD Durrill a true story built from memories of JD's youth. Overall the band's sound is total Americana drenched with a healthy dose of The Traveling Willburys, great musical composition and lyrics to back it up. One of the beauties of the record is the mix, nothing buried everything presented tastefully, based on this sample this will be a great record for 2015.
