A Very Thin Wire Steve Strauss

• 1 Somebody Tell Me 03:09
• 2 Blue 03:40
• 3 A Very Thin Wire 03:11
• 4 Every Broken Glass 03:11
• 5 Here Comes Old Splitfoot 04:23
• 6 Please Be With Me 03:26
• 7 Like It Used to Be 04:05
• 8 Bathseba 03:59
• 9 (Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night 03:49
• 10 In the Flood 04:00
• 11 Home 05:15
• 12 Sisyphus Jones 04:23
• 13 The Company You Keep 03:59
• Total Runtime 50:30

Info for A Very Thin Wire

Twenty-two years ago Stockfisch Records released Powderhouse Road, the debut album of the New York-singer/songwriter Steve Strauss. It was groundbreaking with regard to its recording quality and was very well received. A Very Thin Wire, the fourth and newest album of the now 55-year-old American artist is being released on SACD by the Stockfisch label boss and producer Günter Pauler.

The sound is pristine with perfect instrument separation, a high dynamic range and a resolution which brings out the finest details with high precision. Strauss' dark and multifaceted voice is at all times present at the center of the stage without pushing the instruments into the background. Steve Strauss and the Stockfisch team have created without doubt yet another audiophile gem.

Günter Pauler shows once again how it's possible to emphasize the individual character of each song with cleverly devised sound design. Steve Strauss, whose singer/songwriter music reveals deep insights into his emotional life and psyche, is congenially accompanied by the string-virtuoso and multi instrumentalist Ian Melrose this time.

The album begins lively and vibrant with the song "Somebody Tell Me", which is followed by the melancholic and pensive "Blue": this is a touching song based on Strauss' many years of experience working as a psychotherapist with children and young people. With "In The Flood" he sympathetically tells us of the dreadful floods that took place in his hometown of Binghampton.

In addition to the 11 songs of his own, Strauss also presents two covers, one of which particularly stands out. In 2005 for his second album he had recorded a moving version of Springsteen's "Youngstown"; and this time around it is "The Heart of Saturday Night" from the great Tom Waits, which Strauss skilfully makes his own.

The result is a collection of 13 musical gems. This is a highly varied album representative of the best songwriter tradition, inviting you to lean back, relax and enjoy. It envelopes you with a glass-clear sound which makes you weak at the knees and lets you melt away. - Mathias Pack

Steve Strauss, vocals, guitar, electric guitar
Ian Melrose, guitars, lap-steel guitar, dobro, Weißenborn-guitar, low whistle
Lea Morris, background vocals
Wolfgang Roggenkamp, Hammond B3 organ
Hans-Jörg Maucksch, fretless bass
Lars Hansen, basses
Heinz Lichius, drums, percussion
Beo Brockhausen, saxophones, clarinet, flute, hang, bowed psaltery, keyboards, percussion

Steve Strauss
has been a singer/songwriter for more than twenty-five years. Powderhouse Road, Steve's first collection of songs, was released in 1998 after a serendipitous collision of events brought him to the attention of Germany's audiophile folk label Stockfisch Records. Steve followed up with Just Like Love in 2004, and then spent several years honing his electric guitar skills with jam band Monkeys Typing (still known to emerge every now and again for a show in their home town of Binghamton, NY). Steve's latest Stockfisch release Sea of Dreams showcases the union of his songwriting with his love of the electric guitar. Steve (aka "That Guy with the Gretsch") currently fattens up his folky oeuvre with his bluesy combo Strauss & Co.

This album contains no booklet.