"Johnny and Mary" is the 3rd single from the upcoming album "Short Stories", to be released 10/31/2021.
With her hiatus from music in the rearview mirror, Boston based songwriter Leah Callahan (Turkish Delight, Betwixt, The Glass Set) shows no signs of slowing down with her second full-length release in seven months. On this, her third solo album, entitled Short Stories, Callahan brings you into her mad world of outsiders, misfits and iconoclasts, including: fortune teller roommates (“Dawn and a Bottle of Wine”), fairy godmother bookstore owners (“Lady of the Lake”), intrusive oddball neighbors (“Tom and the Dog”), and hot mess bffs (“Neil the Dancing Girl”). Low paying jobs fill the daytime hours (“Spirit Haus”), while frenzied nights bring misadventures with indie celebrity (“Competitive Clara”, “Night at the Cooler”) and arty all night bachanals (“Party”). To round out these Stories, Callahan reverently covers Robert Palmer’s classic tale of jaded bourgeois - “Johnny and Mary”.
Although you’ll hear an homage to Callahan’s Noise rock past in the song “Night at the Cooler”, most of the album is firmly planted in indie pop territory. From the Gallic disco of Daft Punk (“Neil the Dancing Girl”) to Heart Like A Wheel era Linda Rondstadt (“Competitive Clara”) Short Stories is as indebted to AM radio as it is to college radio; indeed Lindsey Buckingham, The Pretenders, Joe Jackson, Sebadoh, T.Rex, and Of Montreal are all cited by multi-instrumentalist/arranger Alex Stern (The Sterns, Big D and the Kids Table, The Inevitables) as influences for the album’s sound. Once again Callahan has enlisted the team of producer/engineer Richard Marr (Midnight Creeps, Pile, Toxic Narcotic) with his in-house session musicians Stern and percussionist Alex Brander (Big D and the Kids Table, The Feel Goods).
credits
from Short Stories,
track released October 18, 2021
Leah Callahan - voice;
Alex Brander - drums;
Alex Stern - guitars and piano;
Richard Marr - producer/engineer.
Recorded and mastered at Galaxy Park Studios.
Copyright Robert Palmer 1980.
Island Music Ltd.
Album cover photo: Pedro Blanco
Johnny and Mary photo: Markus Spiske via Unsplash
Known for experimental pioneers Turkish Delight US, critics’ darling Betwixt, and shoegazers The Glass Set, singer-
songwriter Leah Callahan navigates between pop and art-rock on her 2023 album Cut-Ups, which charted in the top 200 on North American college radio NACC200.
"beautifully strange record... lodged tightly in the gorge that divides avant-pop & art-damaged rock, elusive & challenging enough to puzzle & enchant even the most fickle listeners" - CMJ Leah Callahan
supported by 21 fans who also own “Johnny and Mary”
Oozes cool. There's a lot I could write about this, just listen to it. Between the amazing Skyjelly tracks and the darker psychedelic Solilians offerings, this is a wonderful release. A really beautiful record. - Limnetic Villains Limnetic
supported by 17 fans who also own “Johnny and Mary”
You know, this album, and particularly "Perfect World" give this sort of "your life is what you make it" kind of theme to it---all while being served with a very hip and catchy melody...personally I'm transitioning from #3 to #2 in terms of this song, and it only took 23 years! Aaron Jay Turkheimer
The members of Big Slice rubbed shoulders with Britpop legends like Suede & Echobelly—no surprise when you hear their radiant, hooky songs. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 17, 2022