I first came across Chicago-based Track A Tiger during last year’s mp3 craze. It seemed that most of the music blogs I frequent were heavily pushing this band. It turned out that their debut, Woke Up Early The Day I Died, was the first CD I bought solely on the advice of bloggers. It’s a short album at 9 songs and apparently was quite a long work-in-progress, as the band was recording while they learned to play with one another. The songs mix a healthy amount of acoustic/folk with something more progressive. Album opener “Glad To Be Scattered”, with its long, gorgeous instrumental lead in, was one of my favorite songs of 2006. Several others weren’t far behind. “Sound As Ever” and “Seashaken Heart” are rich with some beautiful male/female harmonies. “Flood” and “Happy” are Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-worthy laptop-folk rock songs. I couldn’t have been happier with this find.
Track A Tiger is the primary song vehicle for Jim Vallet, a Chicago special education teacher. Over the past few years, as their popularity has picked up, the band has gotten closer to being a full time endeavor. 2007 will see the release of a newly recorded full length album, which is tentatively being called I Speak To You With a Single Heart. It is currently being mixed and mastered. As soon as a release date is set we’ll let you know. In the meantime, add it to the already huge list of highly anticipated releases set for this year.
Track A Tiger was recently featured on Daytrotter. There is a huge interview and some live takes of Woke Up Early The Day I Died songs. The 2 MP3s below are new recordings from the forthcoming album, graciously provided by the band:
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