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LP
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CTN 103LP
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$27.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 1/30/2026
"ER Jurken's songwriting, as evidenced by his acclaimed first album I Stand Corrected, is inclined to wander through the past century or so of American music with a uniquely insouciant flair. On his debut, Ed (as his friends call him) did most of the playing himself, underscoring a deeply personal song-cycle of rise, fall and redemption -- a bare-bones production that ran the gamut from whoa to woe and back again! To Be Continued, his sophomore release, finds his baroque folk-pop fantasias literally on the rocks -- because this time around, Ed's got a power trio of players from Chicago's Junegrass to help him crank it up and out of the park. Once up in the air, his heavenly high tenor and vocal choir melodies further extrude the twisted psyche that underscores Ed & Co's easy riding rock 'n roll. Spelled in spots by Paul Von Mertens' extraordinary string and horn arrangements, the songs of To Be Continued aggressively transcend and defy the stings of everyday misfortune. When the new tunes finally surfaced, requesting and requiring different styles, more conventional song structures and most of all, a shot of rock and roll, Ed was there for the changes. Happy to be crafting his singular new songs in distinctly new musical textures, Ed ensconced himself once again at The Loft, with Mark Greenberg and Rian Murphy assisting the production. To back his vocals, guitar and keyboards, he brought Ben Brazil, Grant Engstrom and Jack Schemenauer in on bass, guitar, drums and percussion. The stalwart rock and roll they generate is further elevated by an old pal of Ed's from way back, Jonathan Kult, who played additional piano. Strings and horns under the direction of arranger/reedist Paul Von Mertens lift several tracks ever closer to the heavens. The combined tumult of all and sundry form an excellent vessel for the surreal melodrama of To Be Continued. As fluently as Ed's songwriting passes through eras of American pop, the songs themselves ramble easily through passageways of existence, finding equal measures of illumination, disillusion and affirmation at every turn. ER Jurken's To Be Continued is a second grand entry in the canon of outside/ inside rock and roll records by an emerging master of the form, an exquisite and timeless musical expression that meets the desperation of the modern world on the beach, with a disarmingly allusive, tuneful and surprising spirit."
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LP
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CNT 101LP
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2021 release. "I Stand Corrected is the debut of a new talent and the debut of a new label, Country Thyme. Yes -- a label was formed to release this artist, which means something special is in the air. Upon dropping the needle, you'll hear exactly what it is, too: an honest-to-god song cycle, riches-to-rags style, rising and falling on the songs of E.R. Jurken and his spectral tenor, refracted via multiple overdubs across an oft-deserted soundscape, like haunted incandescent orchestral pop music with the orchestra mostly erased. I Stand Corrected took some time to stand up . . . Ed bought a guitar off a stranger and Gene referred Ed to longtime Drag City A&R man Rian Murphy, who was indeed interested in the sound of the album Ed had in mind. With wounds just beneath the surface of his skin for so long, Ed began demoing songs on his mobile phone, turning out one a week featuring guitar and extensive vocal arrangements. After a few months, it was clear the cycle was complete. Sessions at The Loft with Murphy and Mark Greenberg (engineer/secret weapon of hundreds of sessions, including Wilco, Andrew Bird, Edith Frost, Mavis Staples, Eleventh Dream Day and Richard Thompson), slowly drew the album into full-fleshed form. The sound of I Stand Corrected is often just acoustic guitar, offset by a lush tableau of vocal arrangements. Ed's voice works the register, sliding easily into falsetto and adapting equitably to lower octaves as well, while populating the landscape with choruses of vocal color. These voices cover a wide swath of 20th-century popular music sensibilities, tipping the hat to everything from Paul McCartney, Beach Boys and The Mamas and the Papas to the Boswell Sisters and the Brothers Gibb. Murphy and Greenberg added just a touch of rhythm in places and Paul Mertens (Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Stereolab, The Sea and Cake, Poi Dog Pondering, Brian Wilson) provided several exquisite horn arrangements that complement the play of Ed's guitars, keyboards and vocals. Side one of the album dashes by in suite form, its eight tunes forming a travelogue that, while initially bright and cheerful, eventually descends into melancholic depths that are fully plumbed on the flip side. Ed's lyrics are obliquely coded -- beautiful and surreal, referencing something horribly wrong behind the curtain. The sweet sadness of a life spent waiting to be informs the music with comings and goings, drawing us into confusion and yearning, showing a heart that resembles our own..."
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