[Cover photo credit: Jamie Harmon]
Memphis-based, singer-songwriter Cory Branan spent the pandemic’s forced time-off working on a new album and signing a record deal with Blue Élan Records. When I Go I Ghost, Branan’s sixth album, was recorded and produced by Grammy-Award winning engineer, Jeremy Ferguson in Nashville and will be released on October 14, 2022. The album’s first single, “That Look I Lost”, features vocal support from Branan’s friend Jason Isbell and on the new album, Isbell features on guitar or vocals in five of the eleven songs.
Branan amusingly comments:
I love Jason’s singing—I’d let him be the voice of my GPS!
Other guests on the album include Garrison Starr who duets with Branan on “Waterfront,” and Brian Fallon from The Gaslight Anthem.
Branan comments on the song selection and sound for his first album in five years:
I pulled these songs from a batch of 50 that mostly predate the pandemic, and all of these felt kin. They’re about doubt, loss, depression, general stir-craziness. But I knew I didn’t want to make a record that pondered itself, I wanted it to have motion, so I gave this record an overarching rule: The sadder the song, the more it had to move and groove. That’s how the country weeper ‘That Look I Lost’ got the Motown treatment. I wanted you to nod along, then after listening ask, ‘Wait, what am I shaking my ass to?’
Branan’s songs have been covered by such artists as Frank Turner and Dashboard Confessional. He has also collaborated with Jason Isbell, Laura Jane Grace (Against Me!), Amanda Shires, and Craig Finn (The Hold Steady) who have been included as featured guests on previous records.
