Jay Bolotin, Ali Edwards, Billy Alletzhauser, Diana Darby
11/13/18
Northside Tavern, 4163 Hamilton Ave, Cincinnati, OH
8pm show
Kentucky native Jay Bolotin is a renaissance artist, equally at home crafting music and stories as he is creating otherworldly creatures carved from woodblocks, who are then masterfully animated and into being. To step inside his world is to forget what was and what is.
Beautifully remastered from original tapes, No One Seems To Notice That It’s Raining is a full-length time capsule of the period. Described as sounding like Leonard Cohen crossed with John Jacob Niles recording Blood On The Tracks, Bolotin’s songs of the ’70s were championed by Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury, Merle Haggard, and Norbert Putnam, and recorded by David Allan Coe, Dan Fogelberg, and Porter Wagoner. His studio sessions and demos reveal a voice calling from the shadows, spinning tales full of majestic imagery; music that until now has remained as elusive as the creatures in his visual art, which grace the halls of galleries and museums worldwide.
Despite his admirers belief that he was uncommonly gifted, his songwriting talents never led to the record deal his peers thought he deserved. Bolotin moved on, turning his attention more toward his sculptures, while all evidence of those musical years gathered dust on reel to reels scattered across the country. In 2009, Bolotin was re-introduced to the public, via Numero Group’s compilation series Wayfaring Strangers – Lonesome Heroes. The album featured “Dear Father”, a song of Bolotin’s off his obscure self titled debut (originally released in 1970 by Commonwealth United, a brief subsidiary of ABC, and reissued by Locust Records in 2010). But the depth of his catalogue remained hidden, until now, with the release of No One Seems To Notice That It’s Raining.
As a songwriter, Jay Bolotin possesses both the gifts of “lost world” story teller coupled with melodic genius. His artistry extends not just through song, but also through his impressive spectral wood cuts and film, which exists in the medium of sculptural wood-cuts and film. Many of them have been displayed in art institutions around the world. His portfolio, The Book of Only Enoch, is currently being adapted into a film. The score will be a collaboration between Bolotin and guitarist/composer Bill Frisell, with voices to be performed by Will Oldham and seminal British actor, Michael York, amongst others.
Jay Bolotin – No One Seems To Notice That It’s Raining
Delmore Recording Society – November 9th, 2018
LP, CD, Digital
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1. No One Seems To Notice That It’s Raining
2. Don’t Worry About Winning What You’ve Already Won
3. Canteen Of Water
4. Traveler
5. Message To A Snowman
6. It’s Hard To Go Down Easy
7. The Picture And The Frame
8. You May Live
9. Puddles In The Sun
10. The June Bug
11. Driver Driver
12. Dime Novels
13. The Story Of Lester And The Gold Coin
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Vinyl Comes in Limited Edition of 1,000 Featuring:
– Full album download code + bonus song / story; “Lester And The Gold Coin”
– Deluxe linen old style tip-on jacket
– 12-page Saddle Stitched Book containing excerpts from Jay Bolotin’s personal letters from the era
– Newly commissioned woodcut prints documenting the people and the times
– Printed inner sleeve with full lyrics on the front, and 12×12 print “The River” on the back
