Slowey & The Boats - Slowey After Dark (Indie Exclusive Saltwater Vinyl)

Indie Exclusive Saltwater Colored Vinyl

This is the indie-exclusive pressing of Slowey After Dark on clear Saltwater vinyl, limited to 300 copies according to the Light in the Attic listing for this barcode. It is a different run from the Periwave pressing that Hi-Tide Recordings sells through its own store, which is limited to 200.

Slowey After Dark is the fifth LP from Slowey and the Boats, the Philadelphia quintet that Hi-Tide describes as blending Hawaiian steel guitar with after-hours jazz. The group came together behind steel guitarist Isaac Stanford in early 2012, with David Streim on Wurlitzer or Fender Rhodes, Mike Hlatky on upright bass, Fred Berman on drums and Brennen Ernst on guitar. The band keeps a long-running residency at Dawson Street Pub in Philadelphia, hosting an afternoon barbecue there one Sunday a month, and the label's notes set this album in that corner bar at Cresson and Dawson Streets.

Stanford told The Pop Break that "the concept came together in the studio." He was reading Havana Nocturne, a book about the Havana nightclub scene of the 1940s and '50s, and "there ended up being five Cuban composers that we have songs from on the record." The sessions also brought in hand drums, which Stanford called "a different sound" for the band. Alongside the Cuban material sit two American standards: "The Continental," the Con Conrad and Herb Magidson song from The Gay Divorcee (1934) that was the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and "Bali Ha'i" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (1949).

The cover is by the California artist Chris Wilkinson, who worked from a mood board of Xavier Cugat records; Stanford said the band took a few arrangements from those same records. All twelve titles are printed across the front of the jacket.

Tracklist

1. La Tarde
2. Flor de Yumuri
3. The Continental
4. Golden Earrings
5. Orchids in the Moonlight
6. Lagrimas Negras
7. Bali Ha'i
8. Flor de Ennui
9. La Paloma
10. Bodas de Oro
11. Longina
12. To You Sweetheart, Aloha