ALL THE PRETTY THINGS by DON GALLARDO featuring andrew sovine and darren nelson OUT NOW ON ALL DIGITAL MEDIA RELEASED: JULY 30, 2021
HOW THE STORY GOES.... Don Gallardo has been playing music live for over two decades. Years of touring in the US, UK, and Europe has been routine for Gallardo. He seems to always be evolving, while creating a familiar sound as each album progresses. His tenth album comes as things begin to return to normal after the pandemic, which has left the music industry and the world in limbo for a year and half.
His new album, “All The Pretty Things,” was approached much differently than any album he has recorded. When the pandemic began in March 2020, Gallardo was in Europe touring in support of his February 2020 release, “The Lonesome Wild.” He returned home after a very successful UK & European tour to a complete stop of life, as we knew it. He hunkered down and started writing positive songs of love and hope. His newest album walks the line of that message and tells a story about it. The opening track “Lost Hope” reaches out to the listener to convey that hope is not lost, as Gallardo finds solace in sharing this message. After contracting COVID on his way back from tour, he found himself having some medical problems some seven months later. What they were calling fog-brain and constant fatigue became reality and Gallardo used what he was going through to write “The Dreamers of The World,” where he sings, “woke up this morning in the sixth dimension, a hazy feeling coming over me.” A message conveying that even though we go through troubles in life there is always a chance for a new day to begin. To keep dreaming, keeping pushing forward, keep being positive even at the darkest and toughest of times.
Taking a different approach to the recording process, Gallardo wrote the songs and then immediately recorded them on acoustic and vocals in his home studio. He sent them to his long time band mate and friend, Andrew Sovine, who was one of the first guitar players to join Gallardo’s band when he moved to Nashville in 2008. Sovine is the grandson of Opry Legend, Red Sovine. As a jack of all trades, he took the songs and added electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, keys, Moog, Omnichord, lap steel, drums, percussion, banjo, and synth. Sovine was continuously mixing as he went along. He finished his part in the recording of the album and sent them back to Gallardo to re-track his vocals and add some backing vocals. After Gallardo was finished, he sent the songs to his close friend and former band mate Darren Nelson who resides in Woodacre, California, near his hometown of Fairfax. Nelson, member of SF Bay Area band San Geronimo, then added backing vocals to balance and stand out over Gallardo’s, creating a magical blend of two musicians who are familiar with each others music and writing for over a 20 year span.
When all the tracking wrapped, Sovine and Gallardo decided to send the tracks to veteran Producer David Pinkston to get some fresh ears on the project and mix it. Pinkston, an original engineer at Capricorn studios in Macon, GA, has worked with the Allman Brothers Band, Kansas, Delbert McClinton, Sea Level, Bonnie Bramlett, Cowboy, Marshall Tucker Band, and more.
This album is Gallardo’s most personal to date. Nine tracks with eight original songs and one cover song, written by American singer-songwriter and hometown comrade Virgil Shaw. All these tracks reflect a world completely on pause but with a positive outlook asking the listener to slow down and regroup as he sings, “You gotta let go of the urgency….”
For years Gallardo has played hundreds of small intimate venues, music halls, & main stage sets at festivals. He acknowledges that the more people in the audience the more he is at his best. Band or solo, he brings an emotional and familiar friendship to the stage where he and the audience become each others family by the conclusion of the set.
Gallardo says that “All The Pretty Things” was titled this because he hopes that even in times of strain and stress, with the future uncertain; you can find beauty in everything you see. Learn from everything and look at the world in a positive state. “I hope these songs become as personal to the listener, after the year and half we have had, as they are to me.”