RUN DOWNHILL is the brainchild of multi-Grammy® Award-winning artist T.J. Troy, a Los Angeles-based musician/writer/producer, blending his original music, comic book art and narrative, and multimedia live performance into a single integrated ensemble. The group’s newest album continues the natural evolution of T.J.’s writing and production style: 10 new songs, 5 instrumental and 5 lyric-driven, brought to life with dramatic performances from the band’s core trio of T.J. (guitar, baritone guitar, drums/percussion, and voice), Nate LaPointe (electric guitar and pedal steel), and Adam Levy (bass), alongside the multi-talented guest artists joining up throughout the collection.
Opening the album with a lush cover rendition of Will Oldham’s “Drinking Woman”, the record mostly alternates between vocal-driven and instrumental songs, often showcasing the talents of the album’s special guests: David Longoria’s trumpet shines in his own featured melodic instrumental, “Let It Roll”, and Memphis-based guitarist Jeff Jensen brings his blues-driven style to “Spaces that have been filled”. Joe Garza brings solid rhythm guitar, Phil Parlapiano brings his organ, Derek Stein brings cello, and Yasmine Azaiez brings brilliant violin…each voice providing the lynch pin sound bringing T.J.’s arrangements together. Leon Rothenberg’s gentle processing brings an ethereal quality to “Gone are the days when it rained”, and Clarence “Slide” Spears’ lonesome trombone sings us home on that long, dark road. Natalie Nicole Gilbert sings a final duet with T.J, accompanied by a much needed rain.
Like a flowering wooly rose, this music is brooding, grinding, lonesome, uplifting and beautiful…accompanying the listener on a vision quest through lost deserts of the mind, lingering and distracting enough to become completely lost in the sound.