The Burnt Pines raise a toast to The Ghost Living In My Beer in their intoxicating new single — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
A spirited track in more ways than one — and a preview of their upcoming sophomore album Don’t Look Down — the international trio’s latest single stylishly serves up a smooth, wry cocktail of lounge jazz, coffeehouse folk and swinging retro-pop reminiscent of Mose Allison. Bopping to a bouncy beat and a strummy steel-stringed acoustic guitar, the late-night track comes spiked with a playful saxophone, a boozy, bluesy harmonica, body percussion and doowoppy backup vocals. Meanwhile, singer Kris Skovmand takes a sobering stroll down memory lane with a melancholy drinker on a romantic nostalgia trip:
“The city is so solemn after midnight.
On a day so lost in autumn it’s unknown.
A silhouette is dancing in the streetlight.
The city’s soul has flown out with the storm.
And you may ask me with a sympathetic voice,
How is it I came to here?
I’d tell you but I cannot hear you from the noise,
Of the ghost living in my beer.”
“I’ve had a history with alcohol, and it has had an impact on my relationships,” Skovmand admits. “Most of the time it has had to do with my need to escape into something that was ideal and fantastical just to get through the monotony of daily life and the pressures that are presented in raising kids, working, etc. I see this song as a love letter to alcohol, taking into account also some of the more detrimental effects, but also throwing caution to the wind. I may have had too much to drink the night this was written.”
Thankfully, he doesn’t have to drink alone. Along with bandmates Aaron Flanders (guitar, harmonica) and Miguel Sá Pessoa (keyboards, percussion), Skovmand is joined by Fernando Huergo (bass), Luis Barros (drums) and Joe Cunningham (tenor saxophone) for his tipsy travelogue. Speaking of travel:The core trio of Skovmand, Flanders and Sá Pessoa are divided between the U.S. and Portugal (3187 miles apart). But they have skillfully and beautifully united once again to create the stunning burst of musical creativity found in The Ghost Living In My Beer and the rest of Don’t Look Down, due Feb. 3, 2023.
Featuring 11 original tracks plus an exuberant take on Jethro Tull’s Skating Away (On the Thin Ice of the New Day), the bulk of the album’s lyrics were penned by the Danish-born Skovmand, who became separated and divorced while making the album. From the spritely Bring Out Your Book, the propulsive title track and the fizzy Ghost to tunes shaded with darker tones such as What Did You Come Back For? and the heart-rending Daytime TV, Skovmand’s ethereal vocals and self-assured approach to his subject matter are distinguished by refreshing candor, marked throughout by — as Flanders often characterizes them — the singer’s achingly gorgeous vocals.
“Kris doesn’t generally write quirky, happy songs,” says Flanders. “I would say that Welcome Home! on this new album, is his sort of quirkiest, happiest, kind of more happy-go-lucky song. But Kris was dealing with a fair amount of pain in his life, and difficulties throughout both albums. He was heading towards the end of his marriage, struggling at first to hold it together. His lyrics have a certain beauty to them just as words. But there’s also an ache, an undeniable pain, when you read into them and understand the narrative and the images that he’s singing about. Beyond that, I think his lyrics also bring in other subject matter related to the world outside of his own pain.”
The album also spotlights Flanders as songwriter on two cuts: Pushing On, which he wrote as a message of encouragement for his son, and the politically charged In From The Outside, penned not long after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The new collection follows the 2021 release of their self-titled debut, which spent 11 weeks on the AMA/CDX Top 50 Americana Album Chart, and earned a Top 10 spot on Roots Music Report’s Best Albums of 2021 year-end list.
Listen to The Ghost Living In My Beer above, hear more from The Burnt Pines below, and buy them a round at their website, Instagram and Facebook.
