It’s finally here and finally available for both download (full album or individual songs) and/or the physical CD! The new album – “Outlaws and Bystanders” – was a long time in the works but the final result is, I think, pretty darned good. Yeah, yeah, I know. That sounds like bragging. But trust me when I say that I’m my own worst critic. That is, in large part, why it took so long to finish this album.

One of the best things I’ve heard about these new songs was when the other members of the band – who had to learn the new songs quickly for the release concert – said they listened to the album over and over for hours on end and never got tired of the songs! They had a 13 hour drive to the gig. Now that was high praise. But I digress…

To get the album, or individual songs from the album – go either iTunes here:

Or go to the CD Baby page, where you can also get the physical CD here:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kentheriot2

On that page, you can sample each song. But if you want to hear each song in its entirety, stop by the album’s Reverb Nation page.

I hope you like the new songs – all written by Ken and Lisa Theriot.* The lyrics and a description of each song can be found on the album notes here: http://www.ravenboymusic.com/Lyrics/Outlaws-and-Bystanders-notes.pdf

*(except Queen of Lilies, written by Sherry Kramer and David Thewlis)

 

It was longer in the works than we imagined it would be, but the new album – “Outlaws and Bystanders” is finally done and submitted for mastering and pressing! Lisa (Lisa Theriot, my wife, producer and songwriting partner) and I finished the last upload to Oasis Disc Manufacturing at 3:30 am this morning (last night?). We’ve spent the last 3 days doing almost nothing but recording, mixing, listening, tweaking, and repeating all that. Just before midnight, we finally listened to the last test mix of the 12-song album and did NOT have notes for fixing something. It was done.

The songs on the album are:

1. Soldier of God
2. Utopia
3. Robin Hood and the Beggar Knight
4. Morte d’Arthur
5. The Dragon
6. Lament of the Combat Archer
7. Dogs of War
8. Little Egypt
9. William Tell
10. Men of the Isles
11. Queen of Lilies
12. The Ride of El Cid

The album will be available on March 10th, 2014.

You CAN see a 3D rendering of the CD below. It’s pretty cool, actually.

http://www.oasiscd.com/AVLFlashViewer/?p=5k2bygQETxxNRyTXoOU%2Faw%3D%3D#.UwZsO0JdUoZ

OK, yes. It was supposed to be done last year. But then it was all emergency rooms and doctors offices and surgeries and – well, you get the idea. But this year…in fact next week(!), my new album will finally be done!

Below is a vine video I just posted of Lisa and I doing a listening session of the test mixes for 11 of the 12 songs. I know, I know. But that 12th song – “Little Egypt” – only needs music, which I will write this weekend. Lisa wrote the lyrics a year ago. In the looping video, you can see the song list for the whole album on the bottom right, if you look carefully;).

So by Sunday (it’s Friday, Feb 14th – we are having a great Valentine’s Day:)), the 12th and last song will be written, and recording will have begun. But Tuesday the album will be submitted for mastering and the manufacturing process begins so that we can have CDs (yeah, people still want those:)), by the time we leave for Mississippi. We’ll be doing a release concert there at an event called Gulf Wars (for The Society for Creative Anachronism – SCA).

My new album – Outlaws and Bystanders – will finally be out in early March. And I’ll be putting on a CD release concert at Gulf Wars in March at The Green Dragon tavern (time and day TBA). This show will feature several of the songs from the new album, so there will not be as much time available to devote to the older songs from the current albums that a lot of folks will expect me to play. So I’ll need a way to prioritize the older songs to make sure the ones requested most will make it onto the set list. Also, it limits the number songs I have to rehearse:-P.

So this is where you come in. If you plan to be at Gulf Wars and at possibly at the concert, and if there are certain songs that that you’d really really like to hear (there are clips from the current albums below), please leave a comment below. That way I’ll have hard data as to which songs to make sure are on the set list. Currently our process is basically – “maybe we should practice THAT song because John really likes it.” It’s not that I don’t want to play that song for John. But if he’s the only one who likes the song, it doesn’t make sense to take up valuable concert time with it. So the songs that are requested by the most folks via the comments (either on this post, or the one on the Raven Boy Music site (Tell Us What Songs To Perform), or on Facebook, Twitter, or any other way you can get a vote to me.