Legendary Kinks singer/songwriter Sir Ray Davies is returning with his first solo album of original material in 10 years–Americana is due out on April 21 via Legacy Recordings.
It may seem strange for a British Invasion figurehead–the guy who wrote, say, the super-Anglo concept album The Village Green Preservation society–to be releasing an album with this title. But Davies, now a United States resident, has long been attracted to American music, art, and the more perverse elements of its society for a long time. (The Kinks’s country-tinged LP Muswell Hilbillies, for instance, came out all the way back in 1971.) His 2013 memoir was also named Americana, and the upcoming album will feature spoken-word passages from the book. American alt-country band The Jayhawks also accompany Davies on the LP.
Along with the announcement, Davies shared a track from the album titled “Poetry,” which denigrates the increasingly corporate-owned and homogenous American landscape. Listen via NPR‘s All Songs Considered, and check out the full tracklist for Americana below.
https://www.npr.org/player/embed/510819373/511131427
Tracklist:
1. Americana
2. The Deal
3. Poetry
4. Message From The Road ft. Karen Grotberg of The Jayhawks
5. A Place In Your Heart
6. The Mystery Room
7. Silent Movie
8. Rock ‘N’ Roll Cowboys
9. Change For Change
10. The Man Upstairs
11. I’ve Heard That Beat Before
12. A Long Drive Home To Tarzana
13. The Great Highway
14. The Invaders
15. Wings Of Fantasy
