Michael Grigoni and Pan•American announce new album – share new tracks

Michael Grigoni and Pan•American have announced details of their debut collaboration.

New World, Lonely Ride is set for release via kranky on April 4. Earlier today, the pair shared the album’s title track and Mirage/Afternoon, which you can listen to below.

Aside from his musical endeavors, Grigoni is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Wake Forest University where he teaches courses in religion, ethics, and politics, while Nelson guides the Pan•American project into its fourth decade, following his founding of ’90s underground lynchpins, Labradford.

New World, Lonely Ride gestures toward its meditative orientation. Grigoni and Nelson offer a series of reflections on the zeitgeist of our present moment, the spirit of our age: the isolation and loneliness that continues to echo in the wake of the pandemic; the fractures that mar our political discourse; the uncertainty that has stamped itself on the future of democracy. The vast geography of America and the absence of a common ground, a shared political vision, have contributed to the affective landscape of contemporary American life – of what it feels like to live in the United States today.

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Using instrumental voices and textures drawn from the traditional American forms of folk, country, bluegrass and blues, and informed with a modern sense of ambience and space, the sound is both contemporary and deeply rooted. Grigoni, using pedal steel and lap steel guitar, and the dobro, while Nelson plays guitar, mandolin, and synthesizer.

New World, Lonely Ride track list:

1. New World, Lonely Ride
2. Sun Morning Sun
3. Omni Country
4. Dream of Someone
5. Silver Streams
6. Black River Song
7. Mirage/Afternoon
8. South Canyon
9. Blues Tears Never Dry
10. Baritone Borderlands

New World, Lonely Ride is out on April 4 via kranky. Pre-order here.