Jeffrey Luck Lucas
When Heidi Fleiss was spotted on “Celebrity Rehab” wearing a Morlocks tee shirt, it was a full 25 years after one of its founding members, Jeff Lucas, had released his first EP with that garage band. That was back in the days when he still lived in Southern California, stole his guitarist’s girlfriend, and suffered a long-standing heart arrhythmia from regular amphetamine use.
Two and a half decades later, Lucas leads a considerably more subdued life in San Francisco after he studied cello and composition for several years in Hungary and in the bay area, picked up the middle name “Luck” around the pool table, and created THE LION’S JAW, an album of sublimely arranged chamber noir produced and engineered by studio wizard Desmond Shea (Court & Spark, Neurosis, Dieselhed) and featuring Lucas’ hushed yet resonant baritone.
With breathy, deep-toned vocals that sit somewhere between the Velvet Underground and Roy Orbison, THE LION’S JAW is a concept album about the darkness and light of two people in love and contains echoes of Lucas’ peripatetic youth spent in California,Texas, Maryland, and Indiana. Lucid strings show off Lucas’ gift for composition while Desmond Shea gives the album a rich, rounded sound. In keeping with descriptions of Lucas’ music as “darkly gorgeous, unexpectedly uplifting,” (Dusted Magazine), THE LION’S JAW presents a sultry, obsidian view of love and the risks we take in its name.
THE LION’S JAW is Lucas’ third album of solo work. His other two albums are the critically acclaimed HELL THEN DIVINE (2004, Antebellum)and WHAT WE WHISPER (2006, Antebellum). Lucas appeared on the Will Oldham tribute, “I Am a Cold Rock I Am Dull Grass” with a cover of “Agnes, Queen of Sorrow.” His song “Cascade” was featured on the covermount CD of British music magazine Comes with a Smile. Tract Records featured his song “Her Pale Silver Eyes” on its “Eye of the Beholder” compilation.
Jeffrey has shared bills with Alejandro Escovedo, John Doe (X, The Knitters), Ray Manzarek (The Doors), Stuart Staples (Tindersticks), Maria McKee (Lone Justice), and many others. In addition to his own recording, Lucas has performed on the albums of dozens of fellow artists including Chuck Prophet, Paula Frazer, Neurosis, and Rykarda Parasol, Bob Frank and John Murry, and innumerable others.
Known as a “musician’s musican” and one of San Francisco’s best kept secrets, Jeffrey Luck Lucas is an incredibly well-rounded composer and songwriter who has lately been recording these gorgeously burnished folk albums with elegant little hints of his West Texas upbringing in them. Upon hearing What We Whisper, Performer Magazine described Lucas as “the downcast balladeer in A Touch of Evil’s lost cantina scene,” while one listener called him as a cross between Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra. Features an absolutely otherworldly performance on pedal steel by David Phillips of Tom Waits’ crew, as well as performances by Tim Mooney (American Music Club), Wendy Allen (The Court & Spark), Chris Mulhauser (Aphrodesia), and Desmond Shea’s stellar studio craft. Standout tracks include “The Pills,” “Just Like Moths,” “Grifos Muertos,” and “In The Stars’ Whirling.” “Darkly gorgeous, unexpectedly uplifting” –Dusted Magazine.
THE LION’S JAW:
Jeffrey Luck Lucas: vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, cello, keys Sean Coleman: electric guitars, twelve string guitar, voice Justin Frahm: acoustic and electric pianos, organ, voice Spencer Murray: acoustic and electric bass Tim Mooney: drums With: Kira Lynn Cain: voice Nate Cavalieri: vibraphone, piano Jen Grady: cello (including solo, “King of One Night Stands”) John Hofer: percussion David Phillips: pedal steel Desmond Shea: trumpet, glockenspiel, percussion, electric guitar, electronics
