Starting at 9 AM EDT today, the new Shearwater album The Great Awakening—our first in six years—will be available for pre-order here. A limited number of signed 180-gram vinyl 2xLPs and CDs can also be found for sale on our Bandcamp page.
The album will be officially released in digital, CD, and standard-weight 2xLP formats on June 10th, through all the usual channels—and of course, we’re always happiest if you order it through your local record store (it’s been a rough couple of years for them).
At nearly an hour, The Great Awakening is certainly the longest Shearwater album, and friends have said it might also be the best. We’ve never worked harder on one. It’s lush and strange, and a feast for your ears—and to me, at least, it evokes older versions of the band even as it goes places we haven’t been before.
Many of you supported the campaign that funded the album’s production, for which we’re more than grateful. Shaping it with producer/engineer Dan Duszynski helped keep us all saner in the long months of 2020-21, and the thought that we were making something other people wanted to hear helped us feel (much) less alone.
2) Live shows?
Once upon a time, an announcement like this would come with tour dates. That’s not the world we’re in right now, alas, but we’re looking at options for some kind of live performance(s) within the next year. We’ll keep you posted.
3) First single, “Xenarthran,” and a video
The Great Awakening‘s first single, “Xenarthran,” premieres on YouTube, also at 9AM Eastern today. It was filmed and directed by our friend Emily Cross (of Loma and Cross Record).
4) Paperback Writer
Lastly: my book, A Most Remarkable Creature, was just released in paperback by Vintage in the US and UK. I’m proud to say that it restores an end-parenthesis that snuck out of the hardcover edition when I wasn’t looking, and that it has 100% more Ecuador labeled on the map of South America. (I’ve also started work on a new book—but that’s a story for another day.) You can learn more and find links to order it here.
Available for preorder now at your friendly local record shop, on your favorite internet music service, and/or at our Bandcamp page.
My sub rosa 2024 speaking tour—which began ten days ago with several events in (actual) Iowa and one in (virtual) Scotland—concludes this Saturday in London, where I'll be speaking at 2PM at Kings College as part of the mad and marvelous TetZooCon. tetzoo.com/convention
It will surprise no one that the title of my talk is "Why the Caracaras Would Like to Meet You".
For avoidance of doubt: all of the above is 100% true. As is the below:
A week ago, I was reading some new work from the pulpit of a chapel in Grinnell, Iowa, and it hit me: I hadn't made sounds into a microphone in front of real live humans since “A Most Remarkable Creature” was published in 2021. Which was a very strange feeling. I've missed it.
I'd like to thank the very kind folks at Grinnell College—especially Hai-Dang Phan, his students, the Center for Prairie Studies, and the great Grinnell College Birding Club, for making a fella feel welcome out there in the wild wild midwest. And I look forward to finally meeting Darren Naish and his fellow travelers this weekend, and anyone else who cares to turn up. It's a good talk, and I'll take questions. You can ask me anything. (JM)
I loved your incredible book!
Once in a while, the stars align. This week, the unique and excellent longform nonfiction platform Alexander (Alxr.com) published a new piece of mine called "Secret Gardens of the Deep Dark"—which will appear in a much-revised and expanded form in my upcoming book on the once and future life of Antarctica. The book is still a couple of years away, but this is what I'm up to these days when I'm not working on music.
I'm glad to have a small taste of the book out in the world—but the real treat, for me, was learning that Alexander managed to get Andrew Scott, (from Sherlock, Fleabag, All Of Us Strangers, The Talented Mr. Ripley, etc) to read the piece aloud.
Hearing his voice reading my words was a bit surreal, to say the least; I can now say with confidence that if you need your writing punched up, a deep-voiced Irish actor will infuse it with a lot more charm and intrigue than yet another revision.
And Alexander is a subscription-only site, but worth it; among the many excellent pieces in its archives is a mind-blowing and wonderful piece on dugongs by J.M. Ledgard (narrated by David Tennant).
www.alxr.com/series/secret-gardens-of-the-deep-dark
This Saturday, August 3rd, we're hosting an online premiere and live chat for the officlal album-length video for our last record, The Great Awakening, at 3PM EST.
We released three selections from it when the album came out, but the rest haven't been seen by anyone outside the band. They were filmed and directed by Emily Cross (of Loma and Cross Record).
youtu.be/8eN3s7s9YBM?si=dzHtobUhumAMxkZH
We hope to see you there. (JM)
