Songbook
Songbook
-
The Songbook is a risograph booklet of lyrics, guitar chord sheets, and musical notations of beloved poet and singer-songwriter Julian Talamantez Brolaski’s albums, It’s Okay Honey and Glittering Forest.
These songs combine the language of classic country with lyrical innovation and pacing. Brolaski, a mixed-race transgender poet, makes traditional, inventive Americana music, adding poetic lyricism to melodies inspired by some of country and western music’s original recording stars and most beloved sounds. Classical piano lessons, the poetry and queer country music scenes on both coasts, and years spent studying languages gave Brolaski the foundation to create “sweet, cutting, and melancholy” (Country Queer) music with various bands and now as a solo artist.
Songbook is enjoyable alongside, and also independent from, its albums’ counterparts, reminding us of the ways great lyric poetry is grounded in sound.
To purchase the albums, please visit www.juliantalamantezbrolaski.com. -
...a soothing lullaby for the soul...
Wide Open Country, ”It's Okay Honey” track premiere
...easy, quick-witted and quick-paced Western honky tonk...
Americana Highways, “No More Lonesome Heartache” track premiere
...a seemingly simple country tune that actually unveils layers of richness as it unfolds. There is a simple galloping beat that works well with the twangy pedal steel that feels both classic and straightforward, complementing this lyrical true story of the joy of new love and friendship. There is also a simplicity in the lyrics that complements the music and resonates in a surprisingly deep manner.
Glide Magazine, “Joyin' in Joy” track premiere
...a long-standing voice in the queer country scene... Talamantez Brolaski dabbles in all kinds of traditional roots music...
Rainbow Rodeo, “Covid-19 Blues” track premiere
-
Julian Talamantez Brolaski (it / xe / them) is a poet and country singer, the author of Of Mongrelitude (Wave Books 2017), Advice for Lovers (City Lights 2012), and gowanus atropolis (Ugly Duckling Presse 2011). Julian is a 2023 Bagley Wright lecturer, a 2021 Pew Foundation Fellow, and the recipient of the 2020 Cy Twombly Award for Poetry. Its poems were recently included in When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry (2020) and We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics (Nightboat 2020). With its band Juan & the Pines, it released an EP Glittering Forest in 2019; Julian’s first full-length album is coming out in August 2023.
-
Julian Talamantez Brolaski's lyric video for the song 'Gourd Flower'
Julian Talamantez Brolaski - No More Lonesome Heartache (Official Video)
Publication: August 4, 2023
ISBN# 9781950268986 (8.5 x 11, risograph printed)
Couldn't load pickup availability
