Autumn Defense
Pop / Folk
After the release of their second album in 2003, The Autumn Defense, multi-instrumentalists John Stirratt and Pat Sansone, realized that there was indeed an audience for their Simon & Garfunkel/Bread influenced soft-rock that they hadn’t truly appreciated, and like most things took some time to develop. “I loved the way that [2003's Circles] had this sort of gestation period...that it took a while for people to find it, but when they did, they really dug it”, according to Stirratt. That record earned high praise from critics like David Fricke of Rolling Stone who called it, "warm, gorgeous, and delightful," and earned 4 stars from Mojo magazine. ??For their third and latest album, Sansone and Stirratt took some ?time away from their duties as members of Wilco to write and record new material in Chicago. They recovened with their rhythm section of the last six years: drummer Greg Wieczorek, and producer/ session man Brad Jones, as well as other Autumn Defense regulars like pedal steel player John Pirruccello and horn player Steve Tyska. “We’ve worked with them for so long now, that there’s a certain intuitiveness about the track as it’s going down... that they know the possibilities as well as we do,” says Stirratt. And through Brad Jones they were also able to work with new friends Chris Carmichael and Jim Hoke, whose string and flute performances brought Sansone’s light orchestral arrangements to life, and to helped provide a truly organic feel to the recordings. ??The result of a long winter’s work is the new self-titled release, The ?Autumn Defense. It is the culmination and continuation of what the band has reached for in the last two records, from the Philly-soul of "Feel You Now", to the baroque "Estate Remains", the bossa "City Bells" to the classic Southern- California sound of "We Would Never Die." A world of voices are explored, styles are touched on, and made their own. They hope you enjoy it.
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