PRESS:


“Desperate, slow, acoustic and deep.  Folk to the bone.  Listening to this recording is more than highly recommended.” (translated from Italian)

-Gio Venditti (Indie for Bunnies)    READ COMPLETE REVIEW  >>

“Somewhere nestled in the mountains where echoes of Dylan and Nick Drake settle through the fog is where Cale gets his inspiration.  Walking Papers isn’t stark and bitter, it’s beautifully arranged with light sheets of pedal steel, and on standout “Stowaway,” bowed orchestral lilt.  There are some ragged moments, especially on the near-spiritual weep of “Eye for an Eye,” and these would no doubt fess up for Cale’s preferred troubadour regale.  The closer, “Kicked Awake,” is a truly elegant confessional.

-Kevin J. Elliott (Primitive Futures - The Agit Reader)


“Dark, chilly folk that's as beautifully modern as it is solidly rooted in its influences. Released four years after it was recorded, Walking Papers is quietly reflective, subtly poetic and very relate-able, malleable; perfect for a pensive dusk drive home. Cale's songwriting is solid; again, the sound is very similar to Cohen's or a far less political or upbeat Dylan, but without sounding like an attempt to copy. Cale's unusual voice makes the album. No summer jams here, but rather lovely, introspective folk ballads.”

-Alex Garrison (KJHK)


There is a feeling of inescapable isolation and existential unease resonating throughout each of the eight songs on this record.  The very first line of side one, "Restless are the words that come alive as they spill from your pen", evokes a pensive melancholy that continues through to the album’s final minutes.  What emerges is a detached, though vaguely wistful, sadness that is idiomized rather than romanticized.

-PJ Glauberzon     READ COMPLETE REVIEW  >>


“Really sweet two-song single from singer-songwriter Zachary Cale... I hear a little bit of the greatness of Daniel Johnston... Killer tracks, hope there's an entire album of this stuff coming down the pipeline soon...”

-Michael Klausman (Other Music)    READ COMPLETE REVIEW  >>


“There’s a certain gruff waver to Cale’s voice, the way it bites at the edge of your eardrum that hefts it out of the standard doldrums of a man with a guitar.  Real emotion lives in the vocals... and his ruminations on love and its numerous varied outcomes, good bad ugly, have a tangible weight to them...”

-Noah Sanders (Sound on the Sound)     READ COMPLETE REVIEW  >>


"'Come Quietly' remains strange enough through its duration to shed influence in the course of the first couplet and the scruffy field recordings. The song is deceivingly Opry-house or ethereal church pulpit, but satisfyingly met with Daniel Johnston in a peak of clarity or the lazy neighborhood shaman throwing Dylan bones. . . 'The Wedding Party,' in stark contrast, is a finger-picked hymnal, magnifies this solo-artist’s (and the label’s) mastery of roots music, which he eventually spins into a web of intimate, intriguing, singer-songwriter shimmering mystery and misery."

-Kevin J. Elliott (Primitive Futures/The Agit Reader)     READ COMPLETE REVIEW  >>

ZACHARY CALE

"Zachary Cale is a songwriter's songwriter, as prolific as he is original. His voice can be delicate for love or wry for satire. The ability to hear what is in a song has guided him well in the making of his own. While the influence of traditional American music is always present in his compositions, he is able to infuse something fresh and new to the form." -John Allen (WFMU)

PHOTO: RYAN JOHNSON

DISCOGRAPHY:

ZACHARY CALE

Come Quietly

7”

1. Come Quietly

2. The Wedding Party

ZACHARY CALE

OUTLANDER SESSIONS

LP $14

CD $10

"The young man blues. Zachary Cale is a twentysomething Olympia-to-Harlem transplant who recorded these 11 songs in the winter of 2003 on a four-track. Mostly acoustic strum with some electric touches, Cale (no relation to John or J.J. from what I gather) comes across on the straightahead folk-stone tip, languishing in the lazy glow of coal heat against cold skin. He's a good guitarist, a fine songwriter somewhere between a Doug Martsch type and a heartbroken Tim Hardin, and the songs work just so. Edition of 400 in a silkscreened jacket; CD issue forthcoming eventually. On the long-dormant, always excellent New World of Sound label."

-Doug Mosurock (Dusted Magazine)

“Outlander Sessions is a personal statement about distance, isolation and alienation brought on by love, and the transition from rock guitarist to solo acoustic performer.  Zachary Cale was previously a member of several short lived Olympia college bands inspired by Dead Moon, Unwound and Pere Ubu.  Upon his arrival to Harlem NYC in 2002 and affected by the tune-smithery of Peter Laughner, Tim Hardin and Townes Van Zandt, recorded this LP of ballads, Highway 61 rockers, and finger-picked instrumentals.”

-New World of Sound

“Long-delayed second album by Olympia-to-NYC singer-songwriter Zachary Cale, recorded in pro fashion at Bearsville Studios in 2005; the late date of release and the album’s title might give the story away. Playing solo and with full band accompaniment, this loner/Leonard Cohen acolyte plays an accomplished guitar and writes serious lyrics with poetic depth. He’s able to pull it off extraordinarily well, too, at times recalling the Mark Fry LP none of us had heard until recently. The graveness of some of this music might hold Cale back from greater acceptance, but it’s not necessarily the lightest of us that’s going to be remembered on down the line. Cold, chilly folk for dark times.”  

-Doug Mosurock (Still Single - Dusted Magazine)

1. Laugh Alone

2. Running in Place

3. Eye for an Eye

4. Tell Tale

5. Stowaway

6. Head On

7. Gone Girl

8. Kicked Awake

ZACHARY CALE

WALKING PAPERS

LP  $14

CDR $6

Includes Mp3 Download

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BUYcatalog_AHE-03.html
BUYcatalog_NWOS.html

$5

AHE-08 Come Quietly b/w The Wedding Party 7”
 
AHE-03 Walking Papers LP/CD-R
 
NWOS-28 Outlander Sessions LP/CD - NEW WORLD OF SOUND
 

Culled from the archive of unreleased songs by Zachary Cale comes two unearthed gems, available for the first time through All Hands Electric. 


Recorded during the interim of his second LP "Walking Papers" and his band Illuminations' "See-Saw" LP, these two songs were originally cut as demos, but the fresh sound and spontaneity of the recordings warranted a release of their own.


"Come Quietly" is a field recording from the modern age, complete with chirping birds and the groan of passing cars.  The song is a sort of noir narrative with lyrics that illustrate a dialogue between a captor and his captive.  Taking cues from the pre-war folk tradition, Cale adopts the voice of both characters.  Featuring mournful mandolins and tortured harmonicas over a countrified mariachi stomp, it's as ragged and tuneful as folk music gets, and the inflections in Cale's glass-breaking yowl recall some of Kurt Cobain's acoustic demos from the Sup Pop heyday.


"The Wedding Party" is a stream of consciousness ode to love with lyrical images floating by like faces in train windows.  The vocal melody is undeniably catchy, sitting perfectly in the space between hypnotic fingerpicked guitar rhythms and ghost-like backing harmonies courtesy of Prudence Teacup.  With it's rapid fire couplets and unabashed pop-minded melody it sounds kind of like Bob Dylan covering the Beach Boys in a dimly lit basement.   The rush of images and the giddy, pulse-like rhythm makes "The Wedding Party" another classic in Zachary Cale's growing canon of songs.