Recorded in Denver, Colorado during the month of January, 2015, Range Songs is the debut full-length album by Mickey Theis. This collection of eleven lushly arranged originals run the emotional gamut from playful to sorrowful, fiery to quietly searching.
Folk and Americana listeners will enjoy the more familiar song structures of "Orphan" and “Freedom,” while the more confessional "Places" and "Elsewhere" navigate darker, more elaborate musical terrain. Other tracks, like "True Love" and “Silent Son” demonstrate Theis’ craft as a budding producer, as he skillfully weaves sparse, Folk melodies into Springsteen-like, anthemic Rock. These more traditional tracks support a compelling counterpoint in songs like the haunting Folk number, “O Haniel” or Nilsson-esque Country lament, “Are You Coming out Tonight?"
Range Songs marks the first full-length release on Theis’ label, Infinite Gesture Records.
lyrics
well, I dreamed I saw an angel
I dreamed I saw a fire
it was fifty feet of pink light
and it sounded like a choir
it shot down from some constellation
held me for a time
then released me like a thief
deep in repentance for a crime
O Haniel! O Haniel!
it smiled like we weren’t strangers
while I shuddered and I wept
and then made may way apart
into the darkness where I slept
I dug my paws into my guts
I ran out in the wild
but she chased me down and woke me in the morning
in the visage of a child
O Haniel! O Haniel!
she laughed and took my hand
and said, “Now, sir, don’t run and hide
I can take you down that rainbow
on a quick celestial ride
so she raised me up into the sky
and not to my surprise
she had changed again into some shining beast of
flight before my eyes
O Haniel! O Haniel!
I saw the earth below me,
watched the milky way race by
and I danced and I sang out in the darkness
and I knew that I had died
O Haniel! O Haniel! O Haniel! O Haniel!
credits
from Range Songs,
track released September 27, 2016
COLIN BRICKER- mixing and mastering
MARK CLIFFORD- vibraphone, melodica, and various percussion
CHARLIE MERTENS- bass (acoustic and electric)
PHIL NORMAN- cello
ADRIENNE SHORT- violin
COLIN STRANAHAN- drums and various percussion
MICKEY THEIS- vocals, guitar, and piano
QUINN THEIS- accordion, glockenspiel, organ, piano, tack piano
JULIE THREATTE- viola
DANIEL WATT- trombone
KATIE WATT- french horn
XANDY WHITESEL- mixing and mastering
DON WILLIAMS- trumpet
TORI WOODROW- violin
Mickey Theis is an actor and musician, originally from Denver, Colorado. He has performed extensively as an actor and has
toured internationally with Motel Motel, a band with which he recorded NEW DENVER (2008) and THE BIG ISLAND (2010). He has self-released one solo EP, NO SAINTS (2008) and is currently writing material for a full-length album, RANGE SONGS, set to be released Spring, 2015....more
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