Tides & Rain

The new album is out there in the world for all to hear

As I was in the final stages of planning the album release, I still didn’t have a title for it. That’s nothing new, album names usually show themselves to me at the last minute. Watershed was on a highway sign. Subject To Change, I actually don’t remember? Maybe it came up in a conversation or a movie I was watching, maybe it was on a poster or a receipt. Tides & Rain is a pair of words pulled from the lyrics of the opening track Cut & Run, which also happens to sport an ampersand. (I like how they look, they sound a little different in my head than the word “and” does.) It wasn’t what I thought it would be when we started recording but when I found it, it made sense to me. So much of the record is about change and accepting inevitability. Plus, it turned out that there is a lot of water throughout the 11 songs.

Tides & Rain album cover photo by Debi Gustafson

It’s not a concept album exactly, although the back half of the album became a sort of informal suite, flowing one song to the next in the key of C from the modulation in Cherry Shame all the way through to the end. I think that happened because I wrote all those songs around the same time on a guitar that happened to be in drop standard tuning, so all the strings were tuned down a whole step. That meant that when I played my homey cowboy chord shapes like D and G, I was really hitting C and F. I liked it. I kept it.

On the right is a glamour shot of the openback banjo I played "Four Weeks" on and the vintage Harmony acoustic that I wrote a bunch of the songs on. It pretty much lives in drop standard these days. The right side is an Exremely Cool Danelectro amp that my dad gave me, plus the trumpet and french horn that I've somehow acquired, all getting strapped in for the half-mile walk across Downtown Troy for an overdub session with Evan.

There are a lot of stories I want to tell you about this album, stories about where the lyrics came from and stories about the recording process too. So over the next few weeks I’m going to be writing a post dedicated to each song individually. I’ll explain a bit about the background of the lyrics, maybe going line by line on occasion. I’ll try to recall the many recording sessions and all the little quirks that came up in the 6 months it took to finish.

But for now, I want to deeply and sincerely thank everyone who was part of bringing these songs to life. The Belle Curves may be my ship to captain, but it’s far from being a solo endeavor.

• Nick Balzano: drums

• Mike Dvorscak: percussion, CP, singin

• Sarah Gross: singin

• Bill Hafener: electric guitar

• Delaney Hafener: bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, high-strung acoustic, autoharp, horns, singin

• Joe Leone: piano, hammond organ

• Evan Marré: bass, acoustic guitar, high-strung acoustic, upright bass, CP, moog, singin

• Josh Marré: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, singin

  • Produced by Delaney Hafener and Evan Marré

  • Engineered by Evan Marré and Mike Dvorscak in Watervliet NY

  • Additional tracking engineered by Evan Marré in Troy NY

  • Piano and organ recorded by Joe Leone and Delaney Hafener in Scranton PA

  • Photos by Debi Gustafson at Yellow Lab Vintage in Troy NY

I encourage everyone to listen via Bandcamp. I know many of us still use the big streaming platforms out of convenience, but I don’t need to be giving them free promotion too. Bandcamp also has a pretty damn good app now that makes it really easy to listen to the stuff you’ve bought there. Give it a shot. I also made CDs this time around, thanks in no small part to the wonderful folks who pre-ordered the digital copy. I got some cool, super-durable stickers too.

CDs! Finally!

Quick brag: Metroland gave the album a really sweet review, and I got to talk with Mk at WKZE and Gianna at WLIW-FM about the album.

Okay my friends, you’ll be hearing a lot more from me on this here substack. Appreciate you being here.

<3 Delaney