The Delines – Kid Codeine: New Song Of The Day

The Delines return  with Kid Codeine, a new song from their upcoming album, The Sea Drift. This should make you feel better!

Yes, just a few more weeks until The Delines release The Sea Drift. In the meantime, enjoy some Kid Codeine. Here’s the blurb with details:

Acclaimed Portland country-soul group The Delines today release the third single and video, “Kid Codeine”, from their forthcoming new album The Sea Drift which is out February 11 on  Love Police Records & Tapes.

The Delines are the current outfit for acclaimed novelist and songwriter Willy Vlautin, who first came to prominence with his band Richmond Fontaine, and who has published six acclaimed novels, the most recent of which, The Night Comes In, was published by Faber & Faber in 2021. Love Police proudly toured The Delines in 2014 when they played the first Out On The Weekend Festival. Willy has also appeared at the Melbourne Writers Festival since then.

“Kid Codeine” tells the true story of a couple that Willy Vlautin’s former band Richmond Fontaine met on one of their first tours back in the 1990s.

“Years ago in Los Angeles, Richmond Fontaine was playing at a club downtown called Al’s Bar and after the gig the bartender invited us to a strip joint. She was maybe thirty-five and had a big bouffant and a twenty-one-year-old boyfriend who never said a word. Nothing. It was almost like she had him on a chain.

She took us to a place where the dancers come to your table. The woman who came to ours was a friend of hers but a junkie and nodded out and crashed into our table. Drinks spilled everywhere but the bouffanted bartender got hers out in time and she and her boyfriend got up and she said, ‘I gotta run but bet the third horse in the fifth race at Hollywood Park tomorrow.’ 

Man oh man, she was really wild and she drove the coolest car and nothing seem to phase her. I hadn’t thought of her in years but during the time I was writing The Sea Drift tunes I just woke up one morning and she came to me and I wrote the song.

“The video is set in my favorite neighborhood of Portland, St. Johns. A neighborhood in the midst of a big gentrification swing. Amy was brave enough to be on camera and we tried to hit the old haunts, a lot of them closed down and ready to be bulldozed. I’m a big boxing fan and I wanted to incorporate Andy Kendall ‘The Scappoose Express’, one of the most famous boxers of the area.

The fight we used was his title shot against world light heavyweight champion Bob Foster. Kendall got knocked out in the fourth but still what a feat. We were lucky enough to work with Gregg Schmitt, who’s one of the coolest cinematographers in the NW, and also a great editor in Zach Jones, who ran with the idea that both characters, Kid Codeine and ‘The Scappoose Express’, are now just ghosts to a city in a major economic boom and transformation.”

More on The Delines + The Sea Drift:

“The idea for the ‘The Sea Drift’ began with Amy and my mutual love of Tony Joe White. We used to have conversations about his records and she’d always joke, ‘Just write me ‘Rainy Night in Georgia.’ Jesus, what a tall order, but I guess in my own way I started trying.” – Willy Vlautin, The Delines

The Delines are the result of the musical collaboration and friendship of Willy Vlautin and Amy Boone, an opportunity for Willy to continue writing his mini-narrative songs that he gained notoriety for as the former frontman of the alt-country group Richmond Fontaine through a new voice and perspective offered by Amy.

In addition to being a songwriter, Willy is an acclaimed novelist. Two of his six novels, Lean On Pete and The Motel Life have been adapted into feature films, so it’s no wonder that his newest material has such a visually evocative and cinematic mood.

Describing Willy’s songwriting style, Amy writes “I think the songs on The Sea Drift have the kind of ‘realness’ that Tony Joe was after – romantic realism,” adds Amy. “When Willy would talk to me about his new batch of songs set on the Gulf Coast I remember thinking, ‘is he talking about The Delines’ next record or is he writing a screenplay?’”

The cinematic feel showcased on The Sea Drift is bolstered by the rich, warm instrumentation throughout the album. Cory Gray’s keyboard, string, and horn arrangements serve as a central musical core while being backed by soul bass supreme Freddy Trujillo and jazz drummer Sean Oldham. On The Sea Drift,  The Delines once again partnered with John Morgan Askew who produced their 2014 debut Colfax which evoked a beat-up Dusty Springfield  and a weary Rickie Lee Jones, making over a dozen top ten year-end lists.

Askew again produced 2019’s The Imperial which spent two weeks topping the UK Official Americana charts and lead to two completely sold-out tours. The Sea Drift picks up where both previous albums left off, further refining the country soul that the band has become known for.

The Sea Drift is the first new material recorded by The Delines since Amy Boone was in a horrific car accident in 2016 that hospitalized her for multiple years and delayed the completion of their 2019 album The Imperial until Amy was able to stand on her own two feet again to finish recording the already mostly completed record. There was a period of time during Amy’s long recovery in which Willy was unsure Amy would want to continue on with the band after the immense physical and mental toll of her injuries, but Amy has a fighter’s spirit, and as soon as she could, she was ready to get back in the saddle and record another album with Willy.

Speaking of her contributions to the album, Willy said  “‘The Sea Drift’ sessions were also the first time since Amy had been injured that she felt strong and confident in the studio, and you can really hear it on this record. There’s strength to her voice, the strength of someone who’s overcome a lot of trauma and pain.”

The music of The Delines is clearly rooted in the past, as Willy and Amy have bonded over their shared love of soul and country songwriters from the 60s like Tony Joe White and Bobbie Gentry, but what makes this album so special is how it manages to evoke these voices from eras gone by without ever sounding stayed or overly traditional. Speaking to the inspiration for this record, Willy said “The idea for the ‘The Sea Drift’ began with Amy and my mutual love of Tony Joe White. We used to have conversations about his records and she’d always joke, ‘Just write me ‘Rainy Night in Georgia.’ Jesus, what a tall order, but I guess in my own way I started trying.”

“Majestic… Boone’s smoky vocals fit the desperation of Vlautin’s mini–dramas perfectly, the band’s country–soul swing evocatively solid.” Q – 4 Stars ****

“Boone’s rich, Rickie Lee Jones–meets–Chrissie Hynde voice is the careworn bedrock upon which these bruised, dynamics–rich songs depend. There’s no mistaking it’s pedigree.”  MOJO – 4 Stars ****

INITIAL ORDERS INCLUDE A BONUS CASSETTE OF THE BAND’S UNRELEASED PREVIOUS ALBUM “THE IMPERIAL”. WHILE STOCKS LAST!

ALBUM RELEASE DATE – February 11, 2022

THE SEA DRIFT TRACKLISTING

Little Earl

Kid Codeine

Drowning In Plain Sight

All Along The Ride

Lynnett’s Lament

Hold Me Slow

Surfers In Twilight

Past The Shadows

This Ain’t No Getaway

Saved From The Sea

The Gulf Drift Lament
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