Linda Draper
LINDA DRAPER | PATIENCE AND LIPSTICK | SOUTH FORTY RECORDS | JAN. 21ST, 2022
Bio:
“I asked them what the secret to a long and happy marriage was,” Linda Draper says, recalling a post-gig conversation with a pair of married fans.
“Jack is very patient,” Ivana, a flight attendant who works long hours, explained. “And Linda,” she continued, “I always carry a tube of lipstick in my purse. No matter how late it is, as soon as I turn the corner towards home, I reapply!”
Patience and Lipstick (Jan. 21st, 2022, South Forty Records) is now the fortuitous title of Draper’s upcoming new album, and the tunes on the currently Brooklyn, soon to be North Carolina-based artist’s latest feel like they came about just as naturally.
“So the secret to a long and happy marriage is patience and lipstick?!,” Draper thought. “You know, I think there’s a song in there somewhere.”
Patience and lipstick.
The phrase also encompasses another idea: Of being willing to wait for things to get better and being ready to shine when they do. For Draper, the road to this record has been long, and not just because she has paid so many dues on the NYC songwriter scene, starting with her debut album Ricochet twenty years ago.
While Patience and Lipstick leans more country than any previous Draper album, anyone who may try to push her into the gentile, soon-to-be-North Carolinian corner, needs to know that the vulnerability in Draper’s songs is matched with the strength and attitude of a New Yorker.
Draper faced down and blew away many an audience at the Lower East Side’s songwriter testing ground Sidewalk Cafe (RIP) in the early years, and her first four albums were produced by noted iconoclast, Kramer (currently seeing his own resurgence with the re-boot of his groundbreaking record label Shimmy Disc.)
Talk is cheap still they keep speaking in their crooked tongues
Trying to sell me the idea we’re all in this together
I beg to differ... I beg to differ
We were never all in this together
There is no tether nor was there ever
The lyrics are from “Tether,” the first single from Patience and Lipstick, a perfect example of Draper’s special way of twisting a dark tune, tinged with the appropriate cynicism, into a sing-along.
Draper wrote the song just as the pandemic was shutting down the city.
“I was amazed and disgusted with how, literally overnight, every TV commercial, news outlet, and talk show was suddenly barraging us with these insincere and overly sentimental messages about how we are all in this together,” she says. “If there is anything that maybe everyone can all agree on these days, it is that we are not all in this together.”
It is a message of passion, blunt truth, and Draper’s personal reality, and it calls for patience. And it’s the album’s follow-up single “‘81 Camaro” that has gotta be the lipstick.
“My dream is for the folks at Cowboys (described online as “Orlando’s Best Country Nightclub”) to make up a country line dance for this song that I can actually learn how to dance to with them,” Draper exclaims.
The tune truly has the potential to become a standard in that way, which makes Draper’s other dream of having Lucinda Williams cover it, seem plausible.
Patience and lipstick.
Draper also identified with this in her decision to cover the 1972 Barbara Keith song “Detroit or Buffalo,” another of the album’s many highlights.
“As soon as Jeff Eyrich (Draper’s current producer, and himself a country music authority, having toured as bassist with all-time great, Tanya Tucker) shared this song with me, I instantly knew I wanted to cover it,” Draper remembers. “Barbara’s voice, and the message in her lyrics, are timeless, raw, and fearlessly vulnerable.”
On the fearless tip, Draper is also embarking on another new journey (a metaphorical one, not her upcoming relocation.)
“The name is inspired by the area in Montana next to where my mother’s side of the family has had their ranch since the 1930s,” she explains of South Forty Records, her newly formed label. “With the label, I’ve decided to provide a musical homestead, by honoring the music for the generations that came before and preserving it for the generations that will follow.”
It’s an endeavor inspired by her family’s near-century long relationship to the land, delivered with an acknowledgement that the effort may only bear its greatest fruit in the distant future. However, when it does, there is little doubt that Draper’s talents will impress.
Patience and lipstick.
Patience and Lipstick, the latest album by Linda Draper, is scheduled for release on Jan. 21st, 2022 preceded by the singles “Tether” (Oct. 8th), “‘81 Camaro” (Nov. 5th), and “All In Due Time” (Jan. 7th).
More about Linda Draper:
Linda Draper grew up in a musical home as the daughter of a classical guitar virtuoso who studied with Andres Segovia. She began playing guitar and writing songs as a child and eventually became a fixture in the downtown New York City's Antifolk music scene on the Lower East Side.
Since 2001, Draper has released numerous albums, toured the US and UK, and opened for acclaimed musicians such as Teddy Thompson, Melissa Ferrick, Luka Bloom, and Eilen Jewell. Draper has also seen her songs licensed for commercials and television.
She is now embarking on her biggest challenge to date with the formation of her own label, South Forty Records.
Patience and Lipstick,” Draper’s upcoming new album, was produced by Jeff Eyrich, mixed by Grammy®-award winning engineer, Dae Bennett, and features performers David Mansfield (Strings), Jeff Eyrich (Bass), and Doug Yowell (Drums and Percussion). It is the inaugural release on the artist’s own label South Forty Records.
NEWS:
PRESS QUOTES:
“Draper’s illuminating sound provides a radiant glow.”
“Captivating magic.”
“Not unlike folk mama Joan Baez.”
“Channeling the finger-plucked folk music of Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake, she sings like a siren, luring some would-be lover to his grisly doom.”
“Draper’s voice takes center stage.”
“Lean and spare songs full of atmosphere with elegant, every-note-in-the-right-place instrumentation.”
“Beguiling and embracing by equal measure... resonates and reassures all at the same time.”
“Nostalgia is instantly triggered... Carrying feelings of longing, in a delightfully blended brew.”
“Linda Draper has few equals as a songwriter. ”
“Very haunting... Very evocative... Linda’s voice is lovely.”
LIVE:
04/21/2022: Piermont, NY @ Turning Point (730PM w/ Carolann Solebello, Fred Gillen Jr.)
04/22/2022: Peekskill, NY @ Bean Runner (6PM w/ Carolann Solebello, Fred Gillen Jr.)
04/23/2022: Brooklyn, NY @ Pete’s Candy Store (9PM)
PRESS RELEASES:
SOCIALS:
LISTEN:
Bandcamp: lindadraper1.bandcamp.com
Spotify: spoti.fi/3kdk7eu
Apple: apple.co/3CgAgWL
Assets:
Linda Draper as photographed by Jeff Um. Click for hi-res.
Linda Draper as photographed by Jeff Um. Click for hi-res.
Linda Draper as photographed by Jeff Um. Click for hi-res.
Linda Draper as photographed by Jeff Um. Click for hi-res.
Linda Draper as photographed by Jeff Um. Click for hi-res.
Linda Draper as photographed by Jeff Um. Click for hi-res.
Patience and Lipstick album cover art. Design by Lauren Rust. Click for hi-res.
“Tether” single cover art. Click for hi-res.
“‘81 Camaro” single cover art. Click for hi-res.
“All In Due Time” single cover art. Click for hi-res.