The Mulligan Brothers announce the upcoming release of their third studio album, Songs for the Living and Otherwise scheduled for release June 7, 2018. Mixed by Grammy-winning producer, Trina Shoemaker at Dauphin Street Sound in Mobile, Alabama, the album brings joy and pleasure from dark songs about life, loneliness, death and spirituality.
With appearances at Jazz Fest, the Cayamo music cruise, 30A Music Festival and an upcoming NPR Mountain Stage performance on March 4, the band has won the hearts of audiences around the world during their five years together.
The band’s name means second chances, but they took the biggest chance of their career and produced this album on their own, creating songs that are truest to them, so far. Converting the upstairs of lead singer/ songwriter, Ross Newell’s home in the heart of Mobile into a recording studio allowed them the freedom to get to the honesty of who they are.
“Recording and producing this album ourselves gave us the luxury of seeing the vision all the way through to the end without outside influences making us second guess ourselves,” says Newell. “There is a new confidence in this album and we are thankful for the great people who support us and gave us the courage to try something new.”
The broader arrangements are driven by the band’s signature harmonies and dramatic transitions from drummer Greg DeLuca with Ben Leininger adding electric and upright bass and Melody Duncan on fiddle and piano. The band is evolving but the songs are still built around Newell’s tight lyrics that stab you in the heart or define life in new ways. Songs of abuse and knowing a man like “the back of his hand” or coming home to a woman who makes him feel that “If you told me that heaven was just like tonight, then maybe I would start acting right.”
The songwriting throughout the album explores many themes, including Newell’s point of view growing up as a Southern songwriter in “Great Granddaddy’s War.”
“We were born here crying with our egos bruised, below the Mason Dixon with the red state blues. We’ve got a lot of heroes here screaming southern pride, but a hero is just a villain to the other side. There’s a hundred years of bitterness in our blood and it flows with the conviction of a forty-day flood. Until we are out of ammunition and the rivers run red over what Jesus meant but what he never said.”
“Some of the beliefs in the South are challenging for me,” says Newell. “Just because someone in my family believes something doesn’t mean I have to believe it, too. This is a song about what I think is wrong and if you feel that way too, then you aren’t alone.”
The follow up to their sophomore album, Via Portland, and their debut album, The Mulligan Brothers, Songs for the Living and Otherwise, is the band’s most profound work yet. After a brief break from touring to write and produce the album, the band is hitting the road this spring for a number of dates.
TOUR DATES
March 2 – Birmingham AL – Moonlight on the Mountain
March 3 – Duluth GA – Red Clay Theater
March 4 – Charleston WV – Culture Center Theater
March 8 – Norman OK
March 9 – Edmond OK – Bottlecap Barn
March 10 – Guthrie OK – Magnolia Moon
March 17 – Mobile AL – St.Paddy’s Day
March 24 – Jackson MS – Duling Hall
April 5 – Tallahassee FL – Fifth and Thomas
April 14 – Sandy Springs GA
April 15 – Charleston SC
April 21 – Brevard NC – Brevard Music Center
April 22 -Dahlonega GA – Bear on the Square Festival
April 28 – New Orleans LA – Jazz Fest
May 10 – Houston TX – Mucky Duck
May 11 – Austin TX – Cactus Café
May 12 – Bryan TX – Rock Away Music Fest
May 18 – Fairhope AL – Coastal AL College
May 2 – Ocean Springs MS – Mary C. Theater
May 3 – New Orleans – Oyster Festival
June 7 – Fayetteville NC – Cameo Art House
June 8 – Charlotte NC – Evening Muse
June 9 – Palmyra VA – Shed Song
June 10 – Richmond VA – Tin Pan
June 16 – Greensboro GA – Pickin on the Greene
July 13 – Denver CO – TBA
July 14 – Bond CO – Rancho Del Rio
July 15 – Norman OK – Summer Breeze Festival
August 1 – Woodbridge NJ – Music on Main
August 2 – Herndon VA – Frying Pan Farm
August 3 – Lancaster PA –
August 4 – Bethlehem PA – Musikfest
August 10 – Easton MD – Stoltz Listening Room
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