Founding member of The Gun Club, Jeffrey Lee Pierce died in 1996 at the age of only 38. Years later in 2006 British musician Cypress grove unearthed an old cassette with a label that read “JLP songs.” Grove soon discovered that this tape was the long-forgotten product of a songwriting session between himself and Jeffrey Lee Pierce and, whilst the quality of the tape was too poor for commercial release and some were just fragments, Grove was struck by the strength of these songs and was determined that people should have the opportunity to hear his lost songs.
Working with a handful of Pierce’s friends, peers and admirers, Grove helped to oversee new recordings of these songs as well as several other lesser-known Pierce compositions and out of this compiled a new album entitled, We Are Only Riders (The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project). Grove enlisted an all-star cast for these recordings including Nick Cave, Deborah Harry, Mark Lanegan, the Raveonettes, Dave Alvin, Kid Congo Powers, the Sadies, Lydia Lunch and Isobel Campbell. Nick Cave’s version of Ramblin’ Mind is a real treat, wonderfully dark and ominous, but then I would expect nothing else! Listen above.
thelisteningpostblog.wordpress.com 