O YE DEVASTATOR

Released as joint release by Velvet Blue Music and Spune, released 27 April 2010.

Vinyl version released jointly by Velvet Blue Music, Spune, and XRA Records, 12 Aug 2010.

 

…Burr, like most truth-seeking, musical poet-prophets speaks in the subtle tongue of sweet tones and acoustic warmth. That is something like my third or fourth language, musically speaking, and it demands my nonnative patience. Burr’s oeuvre feels half-cocked somewhere between lament and triumph. It’s the sort of stalemate that could as easily drive one to madness as awe. Burr seems content to live in that tension, expecting the listener to follow.

O Ye Devastator is the fourth album release from the Denton, TX artist and it is stocked with a well-practiced narratives: One-way conversations under dark clouds; a Chicago policeman burdened under the revelation of a criminal gene; a New York yuppie reckless with fearful presumption in a Topeka diner; traditional American themes of betrayal, love, and worry. Burr bookends all of these with grave antiphons, preserving the distinctness of each episode within the overarching theme of, given what I can glean from the cover’s worried bride, a pre-nuptial foreboding. …
-DMagazine

 

On the cover of Texas troubadour Doug Burr’s fourth album, a lovely bride peeks out from beneath her wedding veil. It’s an image of classical beauty, but the eyes and the downturned mouth belie a moment of doubt and indecision. Look beneath the dazzling surface and you’ll find the heart of darkness. It’s the perfect visual metaphor for the uneasy meditations found within the eleven songs on O Ye Devastator, released several months ago but just recently gaining widespread buzz. …
-Christianity Today

 

…For those looking to lose themselves for a short while, it’s probably not a good idea to listen to this album. Yes, the stories seem personal, but those told throughout O Ye Devastator are sure to conjure up memories of lost paths and forgotten ideals; they’re relatable. The good, the bad, the unmentionable. Anything you have had hidden deep within the darkest part of your soul, it is sure to come out as Doug Burr does the same through your earbuds of solitary confinement. But, really; is this a bad thing? So hear the wedding bells tone and the weather vanes crash as this nomad of alternative folk spins through its entire being, and you’ll be able to simply love being alive for a little while.
-FensePost

 

Available here:
iTunes
CDBaby
Amazon

Vinyl available here:
XRA Records

Sample this record on >> Bandcamp

Track Listing:
1. A Black Wave Is Comin’
2. Chief of Police in Chicago
3. At the Public Dance
4. Red, Red
5. You’ve Been a Suspect All Your Life
6. I Got This Fever / O Ye Devastator
7. Topeka
8. Do You Hear Wedding Bells
9. …All Our Lives (Instrumental)
10. And When We Awoke
11. High Blood and Long Evening Dresses

Credits:
All songs written by Doug Burr, Woven Wings Publishing, ASCAP
Copyright 2010, all rights reserved
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Britton Beisenherz – Bass, Bells, Drums, Electric Guitar, Moog Taurus Pedals, Percussion
Doug Burr – Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Percussion, Foot Taps, Vocals
Orhan Celebi – Viola
Glenn Farris – Banjo, Bells, Electric Guitar, Piano, Pump Organ, Rhodes
Amanda Leggett – Harmony Vocals
Todd Pertll – Banjo, Baritone Guitar, Electric Guitar, Pedal Steel, High Strung/Nashville Acoustic Guitar
Roberto Sanchez – Drums, Percussion
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Produced by Britton Beisenherz and Doug Burr
Engineered by Britton Beisenherz
Mixed by Britton Beisenherz at Ramble Creek Studio, Austin, TX
Mastered by Jim Wilson at Airshow Mastering, Boulder, CO
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Photography by Brandon Lesley
Cover art by Brandon Lesley
Cover model: Anna Burgess
Model wardrobe/makeup: Christina Shoto