Doghouse Roses – THIS BROKEN KEY

Artist – Doghouse Roses… Title – THIS BROKEN KEY… Label – Yellowroom Records… Distribution– Proper Distribution… Release Date – October 18th 2010

Paul Tasker and Iona Macdonald started playing music together soon after meeting in late 2005. Both have been composing and playing music for many years, Paul began playing the guitar after hearing legendary guitarist Bert Jansch in a Glasgow working mens club in the early 1990’s and Iona has built an acclaimed reputation as a singer and songwriter, often compared to the late, great Sandy Denny, her career leading up to her performing with Howe Gelb and the Pilgrim Road Orchestra on the Willard Grant Conspiracy Pilgrim Road tour of 2008. Paul and Iona had already formed Doghouse Roses in 2006, after one too many nights drinking red wine and listening to Pentangle, Fairport Convention and Gillian Welch records. They had started their own label, Yellowmoon Music, successfully releasing a single, two EPs and their critically acclaimed debut album HOW’VE YOU BEEN (ALL THIS TIME). Offering tales of redemption, desperation and hell-raising, Doghouse Roses inhabit the hinterland where blues, folk and Americana meet and this is shown to stunning effect on their new full length release. THIS BROKEN KEY was recorded in Glasgow in January 2010, the core Doghouse Roses duo of Paul Tasker and Iona Macdonald augmenting their take on folk/roots music with Craig Strain on bass, Skerryvore’s Fraser West on drums and Alan Scobie on piano and Hammond organ, also handling production duties.

From the ‘caravan-folk’ of album opener Atonement,  THIS BROKEN KEY pours a cool shower of guitar riffs onto matured songwriting about people and places carried along a road from Woodstock to the Highlands.  The album title is inspired by a broken key found on the streets of Cork during the Irish section of a European tour in September and October 2009, where most of the songs were written.

Constantly touring, the Doghouse Roses live show moves through the stark, poetic minimalism of Paul Tasker’s finger picked guitar combined with the potency of acoustic rock arrangements, the undulating landscapes are drawn together in the intensity and expression of Iona Macdonald’s voice.

THIS BROKEN KEY is a masterpiece in the making and when these songs are performed live the result is breathtaking.

“Tasker’s soundtrack mines the best of Scottish and American musical influences. Like the great Joni Mitchell they leave the listener simultaneously sated and devastated” Rock & Reel

For more information and the latest tour news please visit www.doghouseroses.org

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