Joseph Arthur returns to Real World Records to release the two act The Ballad of Boogie Christ - a new high point in his critically acclaimed, Grammy-nominated career that has spanned nine full-length albums and 11 EPs.
The double album is released by Real World Records (for the world outside of America/Canada) on 9th September
“Joe is one of those rare writer-performers where you get the sense, whatever your belief, that something greater is being channeled through his music and voice. Like Patti Smith, Grant Lee Phillips, Thom Yorke, he trances, and the voice, the meaning, becomes bigger than him, bigger than a few pop chords or words strung together. It touches something very deep and universal.”
Michael Stipe from REM (for the LA Times)
“‘The Ballad of Boogie Christ’ is unlike anything I’ve ever done before. It’s a concept album with a story arc about a man falling apart and coming back together in insanity and enlightenment. It’s a psychedelic soul record about redemption and what happens when you find it and lose it.
“It all came from words and poems like seeds that bloomed into songs which themselves fathered some of the richest music I’ve made in 17 years of putting together records. I can’t wait for you to hear it. This is the one I’ve been waiting for years to put out.” - Joseph Arthur
For every song Joseph Arthur has released, he's probably kept three others in the vault for safekeeping. Indeed, Arthur has been known to start working on a new album -- or two -- while simultaneously trying to finish another.
It was amid this abundance of riches that the Brooklyn-by way of Ohio-native began molding a collection of music under a single narrative thread: The Ballad of Boogie Christ, described by Arthur as "a fictionalized character loosely based on my own journey."
The Ballad of Boogie Christ has defied the odds to become another essential cornerstone of Arthur's robust discography. Encompassing sessions put to tape in upstate New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Arthur's own Brooklyn studio, the double album showcases the artist's signature rich storytelling set to a diverse range of rock'n'roll.
24 tracks in total, the 12 tracks of Act 1 are available digitally from Real World now, and a package containing both Act 1 and 2 will be available physically and digitally on the 9th September.
You can stream a track from Act One, "Saint Of Impossible Causes" here