God Street Wine guitarist Lo Faber will issue a new album entitled Claiborne Avenue under the Doctor Lo moniker next Friday, June 18. JamBase is pleased to preview the record by premiering the single “You Know Me Best” via a video that also features Claiborne Avenue contributors bassist Tom Pirozzi and drummer Ted Marotta of Ominous Seapods.
As the title implies, Faber’s forthcoming LP takes inspiration in part from New Orleans. While Doctor Lo noted Claiborne Avenue “is not New Orleans-y,” a number of the 10 tracks on the album are united by his experience of living in New Orleans for nine years. Marotta and Pirozzi served as the rhythm section on a record that also includes appearances from Dave Eggar, Jason Crosby and Lo’s God Street Wine band mates Jon Bevo and Aaron Lieberman, among others.
Doctor Lo’s “You Know Me Best” dates back to the 1990s. “It was one of 15 tracks recorded for the never-released God Street Wine album, which would have been titled Hot Sweet & Juicy, recorded for Mercury Records in 1998,” Faber explained. “The situation was that Mercury had been sold, and its President, who signed GSW, fired. So we along with many other artists were kind of orphans at the record label, and we had to make this album because we needed the money for it, but we knew it would probably never be released.
“‘You Know Me Best’ was not one of the tracks we worked on most, we never performed it live, and had the album in fact been released, we might not have included it,” Faber added. “I always liked the tune, especially the way it works in time signature changes in a natural-feeling way. But it was a little dark, and a little slow, and a very personal intimate kind of song, at a time when we were trying to focus on more uptempo bouncy energetic material.”
Why did Doctor Lo choose now to record and release “You Know Me Best?” Faber shared the following:
Well, it just seemed to fit in. Most of the songs on Claiborne Avenue are about relationships in some way or another. And when I started singing ‘You Know Me Best’ I really felt like it was in the same ballpark as my more recent songs. I updated some of the lyrics. And the big thing was really when I had the thought of making it a bluegrassy swing vibe. That groove really changed the whole feel of the song and brought a lightness to it that wasn’t there in the 1998 version. Now, to me, with the bouncier feel, it still feels like the song is about some painful personal stuff … but we’re smiling about it now, we’re even seeing a little humor in it, we’re not just feeling sorry for ourselves, if that makes sense.
“You Know Me Best” finds Faber joined by Marotta, Pirozzi and mandolinist Josh Himmelsback, who will be touring with Doctor Lo this summer, as well as New Orleans-based musician Rurik Nunan on fiddle. Dr. Lo, Ted and TP filmed the video for the track at Ted’s barn in rural Cambridge, New York. “The sun came out in a very springtime-in-upstate New York kind of way. We all decided to put on dark 90s style flannel shirts,” Doctor Lo said. “TP played his upright bass for the video, which he actually does not play on the track, but it looks great. I told TP and Ted to talk to each other casually while I was singing the lead vocal – which they had no problem doing, because they hadn’t caught up in a really long time, so they were really very genuinely chatting away most of the time the camera rolled!”
Watch Doctor Lo Faber’s “You Know Me Best” video below:
