Search - Nora Jane Struthers & The Party Line :: Carnival

When you go to a carnival, you go into a sideshow tent, and on every stage you find a different person with a different story," says Nora Jane Struthers. "That's why I'm trying to do with this album craft vignettes, and in some cases more developed narratives, about imaginary people's lives." Struthers' album Carnival, which will be issued on the singer-songwriter's own label on April 16th, is an ambitious and literate follow-up to the Nashville performer's much-praised 2010 solo debut. Produced by Brent Truitt (Dolly Parton, Alison Krauss, Dixie Chicks), who also helmed Struthers' self-titled bow, Carnival comprises 14 fresh original compositions in her "Classic Americana" vein that richly show off her skills as a sensitive and intelligent tune-weaver and a warm and persuasive vocalist. Recorded at Truitt's East Nashville studio, the album marks the recording debut of Struthers' touring band the Party Line. The gifted group of instrumentalists includes Struthers' longtime collaborator P. J. George, Joe Overton, Aaron Jonah Lewis and Drew Lawhorn. Struthers now emerges as a band leader with a smart, affecting cycle of songs sporting a timeline that stretches from the antebellum 19th-century South to the middle of the last century. Reflecting her background in literature - she taught English before undertaking a full-time career in music in 2008 - the tunes are deftly-told stories that survey the American terrain from a uniquely focused point of view.