Desert-dwelleing songsmith Grant Earl Lavalley returns with A Brighter Day, a new album of both pretty and haunting gothic-folk-americana.  LaValley’s 2017 debut From LaValley Below, garnered him comparisons to Nick Cave, Townes Van Zandt, and Gene Clark’s Cosmic Americana. While those comparisons still ring true, this new selection of sounds is grungier, weirder, and finds LaValley and his Joshua Tree collaborators greatly expanding upon their soundscapes and arrangements; an expansion beyond the more stark folk offerings of the first record.  

The first single, “Summers Angel” is a dark electro-folk dirge that is both beautiful and unsettling.  “All Gone Away” has an almost gospel revival feel with its pained refrains and mournful piano accompaniment.  With it’s voice alteration, “Cowpoke,” sounds like an otherworldly standard that could easily have found a home on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music.

LaValley’s distinctive and pained baritone commands and propels the album as he vividly paints a picture of life from his off-the-grid cabin in the deserts of Joshua Tree, California.  The cassette format was chosen for the album because when the summer heat makes his cabin too inhospitable, LaValley and his dog decamp the desert in his 98 Dodge Ram van, equipped with a tape deck, and head north to cooler climates.

Album will also be available as a limited 8-Track cartridge (10 copies only)

PREORDERS Ship at the end of Feb. 2020