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Music

Smoke & Steel

Record Details

Artist
Julia Crowe
Release
2009
Genre
Instrumental Rock

Record Links

  • iTunes
  • CDBaby
  • Amazon

Record Tracklist

  1. Smoke & Steel -:-- / 03:41
  2. Rotten Tomatoes & Cheap Socks -:-- / 02:05
  3. Black Feather -:-- / 03:03
  4. Bats & Umbrellas -:-- / 03:06
  5. Ace’s Four Vagabonds -:-- / 02:28
  6. Enniscorthy -:-- / 03:19
  7. Red Tug -:-- / 02:46
  8. Leaves -:-- / 02:46
  9. If Today Could Always Be New Year’s -:-- / 02:16
  10. The Road to Indio -:-- / 02:24
  11. Sid’s Swagger -:-- / 02:20
  12. Roses of Crimson Fire -:-- / 02:44
  13. Tennessee Turk -:-- / 02:06
  14. Pewter Sky -:-- / 03:29

Note:  the tracks posted are preview clips, ~1 minute long.

Bursting with searingly nasty blues, punkabilly, dazzling electronica and hauntingly ethereal melodies, each of track of Smoke & Steel is a chapter in a sonic memoir of varied textures, detailing Ms. Crowe’s evolution from a classical guitarist into an electric fingerstyle player original.  This is one guitarist performing.  One take, one track, no overdubs.

“Rotten Tomatoes & Cheap Socks” is a tough, thundering bluesy romp that comes straight out of Ms. Crowe’s teen-aged forays to Maxwell Street in Chicago. “Black Feather” is a jaw-dropping track of guitar-based electronica fused with impressive fingerwork in a piece that sounds like Hendrix played underwater. “Bats & Umbrellas” was inspired by her stay at the U.K. estate that served as a hangout for Surrealist painters Dali, Magritte and May Ray in the 1930s.   “Leaves” is a tender ballad, which conveys a lyrical sensitivity in a track that soars and lingers.

[Note from Julia:  Looking back on this album, if it sounds stylistically divergent, that was precisely the intention.  I wanted it to be experimental and break out of everything I felt confining and “pretty” about classical guitar, all while raiding the technique, for all it was worth, onto the electric.]

Click on the title of each track for its story.

About

Julia is a fingerstyle-playing electric guitar soloist and film composer whose music has been featured on National Public Radio in the U.S. and on the Universidade FM Rádio in São Luís, Brasil. She also works in diverse mediums (photography, painting and animation) to enhance the expression of her music. She is the author of My First Guitar: Tales of True Love and Lost Chords from 70 Legendary Musicians, published by Souvenir Press, Ltd in London.

Julia’s Art on VIDA Accessories

Julia’s Artwork

 

Small Painted Cabinet
Small Painted Cabinet
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Painted Dresser
Painted Dresser
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Painted radiator detail
Painted radiator detail
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Fireworks on New York harbor illustration
Fireworks on New York harbor illustration
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Faux wood, trompe l’oeil
Faux wood, trompe l’oeil
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Sunset – Manhattan Harbor illustration
Sunset – Manhattan Harbor illustration
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Cityscape Illustration
Cityscape Illustration
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Vaux’s Swifts video
Vaux’s Swifts video
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Painted fireplace
Painted fireplace
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Moth video
Moth video
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Roses in October video
Roses in October video
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Gilded peacocks
Gilded peacocks
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Blue Wall Mural
Blue Wall Mural
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Social Media Art for Boutique
Social Media Art for Boutique
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My First Guitar: Tales of True Love & Lost Chords

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  • Topkapi Blue
Copyright © 2022 Julia Crowe (BMI) All rights reserved.

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  1. Topkapi Blue Julia Crowe 3:18