Songs for a Blue Guitar

Infobox Album |
Name = Songs for a Blue Guitar
Type = Album
Artist = Red House Painters


Released = flagicon|UK July 22, 1996
flagicon|US July 23, 1996
Recorded = 1995-1996:
Record Two Studios, Mendocino Comptche, California
Hyde Street Studios, San Francisco, California
Polk Street Recording, San Francisco, California
Genre = Folk rock, sadcore
Length = 70:28
Label = Supreme Records / Island Records
Producer = Mark Kozelek
Reviews = * Allmusic Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:uzaxlfjehcqu link]
*"Rolling Stone" Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/redhousepainters/albums/album/228488/review/5945491/songs_for_a_blue_guitar link]
* Pitchfork Media (9.0/10) [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21279-red-house-painters-songs-for-a-blue-guitar link]
Last album = "Ocean Beach"
(1995)
This album = "Songs for a Blue Guitar"
(1996)
Next album = "Retrospective"
(1999)

"Songs for a Blue Guitar" is an album by Red House Painters, released in 1996. It is pretty much a Mark Kozelek solo album, since no other members of the band are listed in the liner notes. The album introduced heavier, electric guitar driven rock to their sound in songs like "Make Like Paper," and Kozelek's cover of Paul McCartney & Wings' "Silly Love Songs." Elsewhere, his regretful, nostalgic lyrics reached a new peak on "Have You Forgotten" and the title track.

Recorded while still under contract to the Painters' original label, 4AD, the label chose not to release the album and released the band from their contract. There have been many rumors over the years about the band's departure from the label. The most popular theory claims the band were dropped because label president Ivo Watts-Russell was unhappy with the lengthy guitar solos in "Make Like Paper" and "Silly Love Songs." This seems unlikely due to the more "rock-oriented" direction the label was taking in the mid-1990s (i.e., the signing of Irish heavy metal band Scheer).

Another more probable scenario is that Kozelek was having strained relations with 4AD's American branch, controlled by Warner Bros. Records at the time. (Many other 4AD artists of the time, including His Name Is Alive's Warren Defever complained of the US management, while maintaining praise for Ivo.) It has also been said that Kozelek offered to release the album as a solo effort if the label didn't think it was a "true Red House Painters" recording, but this offer was also rebuffed. In the end, the album was released shortly after the band signed with Supreme Records, a new label owned by filmmaker John Hughes and distributed by Island Records.

The move to a more corporate label would prove to be disastrous for the band, who became stuck in limbo during the major-label mergers of the late 1990s. Many alternative rock bands who had been signed in the wake of Nirvana were either dropped, or had their recordings held up without the ability to take them elsewhere. The band's next album, "Old Ramon", was ready for release on Supreme in early 1998, but was kept in the label's vaults until Kozelek was able to purchase it back and have it released by Sub Pop in 2001.

The album features a cover of Yes' 1971 hit "Long Distance Runaround." RHP's version on this album is a different recording from the one found on the double 10" vinyl pressing of the Painters' previous album, "Ocean Beach".

A music video was produced for the song "All Mixed Up." The video features all 4 members of Red House Painters--Mark Kozelek on lead guitar, Phil Carney on guitar, Jerry Vessel on banjo and Anthony Koutsos on drums.

Track listing

# "Have You Forgotten" - 6:13
# "Song for a Blue Guitar" - 5:59
# "Make Like Paper" - 12:03
# "Priest Alley Song" - 4:34
# "Trailways" - 6:41
# "I Feel the Rain Fall" - 2:35
# "Long Distance Runaround" - 4:41
# "All Mixed Up" - 5:50
# "Revelation Big Sur" - 5:48
# "Silly Love Songs" - 11:00
# "Another Song for a Blue Guitar" - 5:07