Carried to Dust
Burns and Convertino's guest-filled follow-up to Garden Ruin, recorded at Wavelab and mixed in Austin.
Calexico, 2008
- Released
- 9 September 2008
- Studio
- Wavelab Studio, Tucson; mixed at Top Hat Studio, Austin
- Label
- Quarterstick
- Producer
- Joey Burns and John Convertino, with Craig Schumacher as co-producer
Carried to Dust was recorded at Wavelab and mixed by Craig Schumacher at Top Hat Studio in Austin, with Chris Schultz mixing three tracks. JJ Golden mastered it. Sam Beam of Iron & Wine sings backing vocals on House of Valparaiso, Pieta Brown sings on Slowness, Amparo Sanchez sings on Inspiracion, Mickey Raphael plays harmonica on Bend to the Road, and Douglas McCombs of Tortoise plays guitar on Contention City. Jairo Zavala co-wrote the opener Victor Jara's Hands with Burns and sings and plays guitar on it, and Jacob Valenzuela wrote Inspiracion.
Pitchfork's Joe Tangari framed it against Feast of Wire, the record where they tried everything and made it work, and Garden Ruin, their basic rock album. He singled out Writer's Minor Holiday for Convertino's laid-back, jazzy drumming and The News About William for working almost like a duet between Burns and Paul Niehaus's steel guitar. AllMusic gave it four and a half stars. PopMatters, in 2011, felt it blended everything the band had tried before.
Track listing
- Victor Jara's Hands3:19
- Two Silver Trees3:49
- The News About William2:47
- Sarabande in Pencil Form0:39
- Writer's Minor Holiday3:09
- Man Made Lake3:00
- Inspiracion3:34
- House of Valparaiso2:46
- Slowness3:35
- Bend to the Road3:17
- El Gatillo (Trigger Revisited)3:07
- Fractured Air (Tornado Watch)3:15
- Falling from Sleeves1:20
- Red Blooms3:24
- Contention City4:16
Personnel
- Joey Burns guitar, vocals, bass, piano, organ, vibraphone, cuatro, cello; producer
- John Convertino drums, percussion, marimba, banjo; producer
- Craig Schumacher co-producer, mixing; lap steel on Red Blooms
- Paul Niehaus pedal steel, electric guitar
- Volker Zander bass
- Jacob Valenzuela trumpet
- Martin Wenk trumpet, glockenspiel, French horn, accordion
- Jairo Zavala guitar, vocals
- Sam Beam backing vocals on House of Valparaiso
- Pieta Brown vocals on Slowness
- Douglas McCombs electric guitar on Contention City
- Mickey Raphael harmonica on Bend to the Road
More from Calexico
Spoke (1996), The Black Light (1998), Hot Rail (2000), Feast of Wire (2003), Convict Pool (2004), In the Reins (2005), Garden Ruin (2006), Algiers (2012), Edge of the Sun (2015), The Thread That Keeps Us (2018), Years to Burn (2019), Seasonal Shift (2020), El Mirador (2022)
Sources
- Calexico: Carried to Dust, Discogs
- Calexico: Carried to Dust (master), Discogs
- Calexico: Carried to Dust, Pitchfork (2008-09-11)
- Calexico: Hot Rail / Feast of Wire, PopMatters (2011-04-14)
- Calexico (band), Wikipedia