Blue Skies and Sunny Days album cover
Everything about this album cover makes me happy and excited. Let's start with the name at upper left - Frances England! The San Francisco artist is one of Zooglobble's original favorites, and the fact that she's still making music more than a dozen years later after the tiny hand-crafted jewel of Fascinating Creatures pleases me greatly.
And then the title - yes, it's new music. Blue Skies and Sunny Days is the successor to the fabulous, Grammy-nominated Explorer of the World, and in just over a month it'll be released to the world. More music from Frances is always a good thing -- this new album is co-produced by her and Dean Jones (who's produced a number of her albums). It also features a lot of collaboration with Dan Lebowitz of the band ALO.
And finally, Lisa Congdon's cover art is so Frances-like that I wouldn't have been surprised to hear that England herself had done it. Congdon's colors (that sun!) and mix of field and town capture the organic mix that Frances' music has had from the beginning.
While the leadoff track "Carefree," a song celebrating a relaxed road trip, is perhaps a little more elaborate than the music Frances England was making a decade ago, it is instantly recognizable as one of her tracks. I'm happy to world-premiere it here!
Blue Skies and Sunny Days is out August 17.
