Engineers: Mark Needham, Billy Anderson.

Recorded at Record Two, Mendocino Comptche, California; Hyde Street Studios and Polk Street Recording, San Francisco, California.

Recording information: Hyde Street Studios, San Francisco, CA; Polk Street Recording, San Francisco, CA; Polka Street Recording, San Fra; Record Two Mendocino, Compatche; Record Two, Mendocino Comptche, CA.

Photographer: Michele Turriani.

Before Songs for a Blue Guitar could appear, the Red House Painters' singer/songwriter/guitarist Mark Kozelek had to leave his old label 4AD (allegedly over a Kozelek solo album 4AD rejected), split up the band, and find a new home for his music on Supreme Recordings. Fortunately for Kozelek and his audience, it's worth all the tumult. This is the solo album Kozelek wanted to make masquerading as the Red House Painters album; no other Painters are listed in the liner notes. The benefits that resulted from his freedom from the group setting are evident on Songs for a Blue Guitar. The album compiles a diverse group of styles, including gently hypnotic folk in "Have You Forgotten" and "Trailways," and country-rock, both slow ("Song for a Blue Guitar") and fast ("Make Like Paper"), as well as a various selection of covers. Mixed with Kozelek's traditionally beautiful and sad material, Yes' "Long Distance Runaround," Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs," and the Cars' "All Mixed Up" bring light to the Red House Painters' typically shadowy songs. The deep beauty and eclecticism on Songs for a Blue Guitar make it another artistic triumph for the Red House Painters. ~ Heather Phares

Throughout the '90s, the Red House Painters established themselves as the bedroom poet princes, a quieter, more retiring take on American Music Club's self-loathing avant-folk-rock. While BLUE GUITAR still bears strong traces of the gentle, acoustic Tim Buckley/Nick Drake style that was the band's early trademark, it's also their most aggressive album. The mood is relentlessly downbeat as usual, and soft acoustic ballads like "Have You Forgotten" are standard Painters fare, but the boys have seemingly been listening to a lot of Crazy Horse-era Neil Young as well. "Make Like Paper" is full of crunchy, distorted guitar, with that desert hallucination feel that's so prevalent in Young's '70s work.

The band continues its tradition of unusual cover tunes, with completely unironic and shockingly effective deconstructions of the Cars's "All Mixed Up," Wings's "Silly Love Songs," and Yes's "Long Distance Runaround." There's even an upbeat country-ish tune ("I Feel The Rain Fall"). All this stylistic diversity makes BLUE GUITAR the group's most varied and endearing album.