John Huber
I heard perhaps 1 min of the Juniper Arms and fell in love with this track & album as a whole. Beautifully haunting.
Favorite track: Juniper Arms.
Mubla Na Thguob
Just listened to the vinyl front to back. There's not a note or inflection that I would change, which is, I guess, my way of saying that I believe this is a masterpiece. The most beautiful album I have ever heard, bar none. Stunning!
Favorite track: High Lonesome.
There’s a persisting theme that threads through Adam’s own story as well as Pearls To Swine. Within the cosmos of the album, characters experience a sort of misadventure and persevere, casting light on the way life can lead you down a path that’s far from where you wanted to be. The album maps his complicated history as a songwriter and musician: it’s the sound of someone who discovered the value in his own devotion to music, and how writing and songs are extensions of his own journey. He embeds his own folklore within his high-lonesome sounding, deeply felt and moving brand of folk music.
To truly understand Pearls To Swine and Adam’s arrival on his current path, one has to start at the beginning. In 2006, the then 20-year-old released his idiosyncratic, varied, and beautiful debut album, Nostra Nova. A DIY self-release, the album became a closely-held, sleeper favorite in the close-knit music scene of Athens, OH and over the years grew to a ‘cult classic’-like status. But not long after its release, Adam turned his focus from pursuing music professionally to other interests: he returned to college; traveled, taught, and volunteered in South America; moved to Austin to attend graduate school; and spent two years working for the state of Texas on a project aimed at cleaning the water quality of the Rio Grande River in South Texas. All the while, he never stopped playing music, writing songs, or performing. Having penned more than 100 songs since 2006, Adam quietly released his first music since Nostra Nova in 2012 through DC cassette-label DZ Tapes, which featured tape-recorded demos made inside the apartments he lived in during his time in Ecuador. In 2015, Nostra Nova saw a small reissue and finally achieved its due outside of its underground lore, receiving praise from outlets including The A.V. Club, Stereogum (“a stunner”), VICE (“beautiful, melancholy tunes”), Popmatters, All Music Guide, and Flavorwire.
credits
released September 3, 2016
All songs written by Adam Torres
Produced by Adam Torres & Co-Produced by Erik Wofford
Engineered and mixed by Erik Wofford at Cacophony Recorders in Austin, TX
Mastered by Jeff Lipton at Peerless Mastering, Boston, MA
Assistant engineer: Maria Rice
Adam Torres - Vocals & Guitar
Matthew Shepherd - Drum Kit (1, 3, 5)
Rodolfo Villarreal III - Drum Kit (2, 7, 9)
Thor Harris - Conga Drum, Electric Vibraphone, Hammered Dulcimer, Timpani, Triangle
Aisha Burns - Violin
Dailey Toliver - Bass & Piano
Molly Burch, Emily Cross, Caitlin Kraus-Torres, Jazz Mills - Choir (Mountain River)
