His First Collection Of New Music In 10 Years
Will Release on The Blackbird Record Label
Los Angeles, CA March 2024—Somehow 10 years slid away from David Serby, an LA-based alt-country singer-songwriter and musician. “A lot has happened in that time, but I haven’t really gone anywhere. That’s the struggle and the beauty. Figuring out how to fight through life’s roadblocks and still keep creating…losing loved ones, jobs, insecurity, moving, illness, money, pandemics…I’d say figuring out how to navigate life is how I got comfortable with not going anywhere and that’s where I am today.”
A five-time album-maker—I Just Don’t Go Home (2006); Another Sleepless Night (2007); HonkyTonk and Vine (2009); Poor Man’s Poem (2011); The Latest Scam (2013)—Serby is set to release his next studio album, Low Hanging Stars (2024) via The Blackbird Record Label. “I was trying to figure out a way to get back to making a country record (after the pop record The Latest Scam and the folk record, Poor Man’s Poem). I was really going to explore the idea of being on the fringe of something and maybe wanting to hold onto what you have, but at the same time also wanting to run away from it.”
Serby has long been a chief component of the LA country/Americana music scene. His signature is writing character studies that often include clever word play. He is quick to add, “And I am smart enough to surround myself with really talented musicians. My bands are always top shelf.”
For Low Hanging Stars he has again collaborated with longtime producer, guitar player, and friend, Ed Tree. “This is the sixth record I’ve made with him and he really is a Don Rich or Pete Anderson type guy with me. We map out the records together, but as the producer, he’s brilliant at creating the sonic landscape.” They recorded at Ed Tree’s Treehouse Studio where Tree also engineered. The record was mastered by Mark Dann.
Serby thought that 2013’s The Latest Scam might be his last record. “It was my 6th record in 8 years. It was a pop record, and for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to put out a double record with 20 songs on it. It was fun and electric, but maybe not as focused as it could have been. Low Hanging Stars is getting back to what I think is probably my wheelhouse: compact character studies using more traditional country and roots music forms. I made a real effort to put together songs that worked together, yet all had different feels (two beats, shuffles, mid-tempo ballads, rockers, etc.). And it’s only 10 songs.”
“Fishtail Cadillac” kicks the album off. It’s a straight forward country song with a real 50s rock and roll vibe. “This song is basically everything I was obsessed with when I was ten years old listening to a pile of Jerry Reed 45s,” said Serby. “I also get a laugh out of the fact that the guy really just wants his cowboy hat and Caddie back…the girl can go.”
The title song, “Low Hanging Stars” has a roots rock vibe. “I was thinking about this arc that brilliant artists and musicians have where they fire brightly for a short period and then burn out. It’s a sad story.” Serby added a couple of extra bars before getting into the last chorus. “I’m also a little proud of this one in that I ended it with the same line as I began it, and the song doesn’t end on the one or home chord (in this case a D), it ends on the four chord (in this case a G) which I hope makes the end feel sad and unsettling.”
“She Ain’t Changed at All” is a cool little country tune that Serby says, “We got Dale Daniel and Gregory Boaz to give a swinging Buddy Holly beat to.” And “I Bought the Ring” is a catchy little country song that the band tried to do as a 60s pop tune. “It’s got a lyrical twist that treats a wedding ring like a boxing ring… I bought the ring So it’s on me | You threw the punch I did not see | I should’ve known You’d knock me down | I bought the ring We dance around…There’s a swinging two beat rhythm track on this one also. Ed plays a jangling drone that floats around the vocal melody, and Darice sings the perfect harmony part.”
In addition to “Low Hanging Stars” Serby considers the last song, “Is it Lonely in Here” to be the record’s most important, thematically. While at a daytime Americana brunch show in Los Angeles, Serby was at the bar drinking a bloody mary. “It was a quiet, late morning and I asked the bartender, ‘Is it me or is it lonely in here?’ I grabbed a napkin and wrote it down, and now it’s finally become a song.”
A stripper dancing for a guy in a hotel room while he watches The Rockford Files, a cowboy boot with a bottle of pills tucked inside, lying in bed with your girlfriend wrapped in a flannel blanket because the landlord cut your heat, the whiskey in your glass spinning around like a drain…Serby has a unique worldview and has the ability to translate that vision lyrically. He is able to create a sense of time and place with little every day kind of things that you wouldn’t think would be in a song.
“I’m proud of the songs,” he said. “I think they say something about how I look at the world. I love all the people who worked on it with me and think they all played beautifully. I’m excited to share it with others, and I’m looking forward to the next one.”
Low Hanging Stars will be available June 14, 2024 via Blackbird Record Label.