Goner to release Harlan T. Bobo's new album July 17

Goner to release Harlan T. Bobo’s second album July 17 “A man is least himself when he speaks in his own person. Give him a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.” Oscar Wilde It’s doubtful that Wilde was anticipating the peculiar career and music of Memphis’ Harlan T. Bobo with these words, but the statement suits the singer/songwriter perfectly.

Harlan’s first album, 2005’s “Too Much Love,” was one of the most critically-lauded local releases of the year by everyone from National Public Radio to the Memphis Flyer (which called it the best Memphis record of the past five years). A dark song cycle which chronicled the dissolution of Harlan’s relationship with one Yvonne Bobo, “Too Much
Love” drew the deep-voiced troubadour favorable comparisons to everyone from Ryan Adams to Leonard Cohen. Over the course of the next two years, both in Memphis and abroad, Harlan’s live performances garnered a cult following. His sense of theatre and art-student background have placed him in makeup,in costume, and always in character when on-stage. To-date, he has never stated the exact circumstances which brought him to Memphis.

For an artist who keeps so much secret, Harlan’s songs are known for their painful,sometimes uncomfortable, naked emotional candor. “I’m Your Man,” Harlan’s eagerly awaited sophomore album, will be released on July 17 by Cooper-Young’s Goner Records. The album moves erratically among garagepunk workouts, sweet country-rock laments, and moments of pure cabaret—united throughout by the rhythm section of Jeremy Scott and Paul Buchignani and the strings of Jonathan Kirkscey and Chang Lee. Midtown veteran Alicja Trout even lends her guest
vocals to the album stand-out “So Bad?”

It is on a suite of aching, southern-soul ballads (including “Pragmatic Woman,” “Last Step,” “One of These Days,” and “Pretty Foolish Things”) that Harlan is at his most blunt and confessional, and delivers most richly on his promise as one of Memphis’ most notable musicians. “One of these days, you’ll wish you’d stayed,” he tells a long-departed lover on the penultimate track. It doesn’t get any more honest than that.

RFD recently spoke to Harlan at his Midtown home.

What are three things that the general
public wouldn’t know about Harlan T.
Bobo?
1. I own a one man submarine which I keep
at Arkabutla Lake.
2. I plan on giving up music for a late career
in the Cirque du Soleil. I have a balancing
act I do with a ladder.
3. For my first music lesson I helped my
teacher slaughter a pig. That experience
shaped my playing more than all subsequent
lessons.
In the press for “Too Much Love,” you
described it as being about the breakup
with Yvonne Bobo. What is the new
album about?
It’s about aftermath. The aftermath of Yvonne
thing. But it’s about no one specifically.
Was your approach to writing this
album different than for the previous
record?
No, not really. Just laying in bed a lot. It didn’t
take that long to write it, but it took a long
time to record it and finish it.
Why?
Getting people, including
myself, in town at one time.
Trying out different places (the
album lists no fewer than six
recording locales, including
First Congregational Church
and the homes of Harlan and
producer Doug Easley.) We
thought it was done, and then
it sort of sat there for a long
time. I took about four of five
months of not listening to it
before I decided to kill three or
four songs. Then we rerecorded
three songs. Then it
made a little more sense to
me.
How did your relationship
with Goner Records
develop?
Well, I met them just by
going to the store. I would go
in there and sell them records
to sell, and eventually they
asked me if I wanted them to
put it out. They’re more of kind
of a punk rock label, so I
would never have considered it, but it’s
working out well.
Are you planning to tour a lot again for
this album?
Yeah, we’re going again [to Europe] in
September. I’m going with Jack [Oblivion]; he
and I will do a set together. He’s pretty well
known over there, so that helps.
Why did you choose to have an anatomical
drawing of a guy with his neck muscles
exposed for the cover of “I’m Your Man”?
(pause) I guess the album was a dissection to
me, in a lot of ways.

“I’m Your Man” will be released on July 17
on Goner Records with a CD release event
scheduled for July 21 at the Hi-Tone Café.
For more information, visit www.myspace.
com/HarlanTBobo.