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Gentle Readers - HiHoney
FLTCD121

HiHoney is the third release from Atlanta, Georgia's Gentle Readers-seminal indie quartet playing this country's very keenest rock and roll music. In the tradition of great American guitar bands like the Vulgar Boatmen (singer Susan Fitzsimmons used to be a Boatman), the Readers take taut guitar playing and original song structure and mix it up with a bit `o that Southeastern humid jangle. The Austin Chronicle said of the Readers, "Intelligent stuff - worthy of Talking Heads, VU status," and other critic types have tossed some Feelies, Tom Petty, and R.E.M. in there too. The Gentle Readers are highly adept at striking a balance between dynamic electric folk rock and transcendent pop, and with HiHoney, they've done it better than ever. The first track, Lunchhour, perfectly captures the essence of the album: winsome, driving and melodic. It is a sound and attitude that carries through all the tracks-from the 12-string strumming of Center of the Universe and the 60's style beach jam of Difficult through the Fleetwood Mac-ish album closer, California Pt. 2. And there's a nice AM radio cover of Sade's Sweetest Taboo in there as well.

Possessing an "unusual lyrical wit," the Gentle Readers largely tackle issues of restlessness and reconciliation on HiHoney. In Difficult, Fitzsimmons sings of her peers, "we're motorized and amortized, we're speeding up, fast enough to be difficult." Nothing You Can Do finds a woman asking her spouse plaintively, "Are you telling me there's nothing you can do? This time I'm really asking." An artist gets stung in California, an office worker ruminates on the day she doesn't have to go back on Last Day, and so on.

In 1998, Flat Earth Records released the Gentle Readers' second album, You in Black & White. Like HiHoney, that record was produced by Paul Mahern and was recorded at Bloomington, Indiana's Echo Park recording studio. Mahern's credits include John Mellencamp, Mysteries of Life, Lisa Germano, Thin Lizard Dawn and the Blake Babies. The record proved to be a critical success as well as one of the label's best performers at college radio.

For the recording of You in Black & White, the Readers called in friends Travis McNabb of Better Than Ezra to play drums and Vess Ruhtenberg of United States Three to play bass. Since that time, however, Susan Fitzsimmons and Lee Cuthbert0Gentle Readers singer and guitarist, respectively0have settled down with a permanent rhythm section. They wrote HiHoney with drummer Linda Bolley and bassist Greg Partridge, resulting in their most organic album to date.

Fitzsimmons and Cuthbert began playing together in 1992 when Susan left the Vulgar Boatmen, Lee left the Datura Seeds (both Mahern and Ruhtenberg were also members of that band) and the two moved from Indianapolis to Atlanta. The Readers have always adhered to an aesthetic that calls for playing good songs really well, and that's what they're doing today: playing around the Southeast, fixing the van, flipping through magazines, trying to agree on a restaurant (often pronounced `restrunt'), and always practice practice practice.

Flat Earth Records is distributed all over the United States by Symbiotic Distribution, Chicago, Illinois - 1.888.802.2800. For more information check out Flat Earth on the Internet www.flatearthrecords.com

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