Jerry Castle to Release 'Not So Soft Landing' June 24th, Premieres Blind Melon Cover, "No Change"

Courtesy: Missing Piece Group

(Press Release) Nashville singer-songwriter Jerry Castle is set to release his new album Not So Soft Landing June 24th.  The 10-song set was recorded in East Nashville and Topanga, CA and was produced by the Grammy Award-winning producer Chad Brown (Ryan Adams, Hayes Carll) and mixed by 3-time Grammy-winning engineer and producer Warren Riker (Wyclef Jean, Down, Common).  Rolling Stone Country premiered Castle’s reverent cover of Blind Melon’s “Change” today.  It serves as the album’s closing track and can be heard HERE. 
 
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Castle said “The song was a huge part of my youth, a credo of sorts for fighting depression.  The rest of Not So Soft Landing had already been recorded, but it didn’t feel like we had the right song to end the album.  I remembered Blind Melon’s Letterman performance of the song on the evening that Kurt Cobain was found dead.  I pulled the performance up online to see if it was as good as I had remembered and was floored 22 years later; it felt just as emotional and the song was more poignant to my life than ever.  I knew right then that ‘Change’ was the right way to end the album.’  Magnet Magazine also recently premiered the video for the album’s first single, “Ride.”  The clip was directed by Stacie Huckeba and can be seen HERE.  Castle has also announced the first live dates in support of the record (please see dates below). 

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While his previous albums presented an Americana troubadour writing songs about hard living, heartbreak and desperately trying to turn things around, the songs found on Not So Soft Landing are a marked departure from his previous rootsy sound.  A much more ethereal, atmospheric, and at times psychedelic effort, Jerry credits much of his recent inspiration to time spent in sensory deprivation float tanks.  Castle says, “I started floating simply as a means of trying to improve my meditation technique, not to change my songwriting.  When you float, it’s easier to go into the theta state, which is the meditative state.”  He adds, “It’s like floating in outer space and there really is nothing like it.  The more I floated, the more it made me feel like I was more connected to the cosmos.  It definitely has opened me up as a songwriter and gave me a whole set of senses to observe and then use in my creative process.” 
 
Castle continues “Not So Soft Landing is the first album I’ve done that didn’t feel forced at any point of the writing or recording process.  As a result, I feel like my sound has evolved into a different sort of animal than my previous albums.  The time I spent trying to write songs for country hits really messed with my head and the authenticity of what I do.  I feel like I basically spent the previous three albums working that influence out of my system and this album represents taking a big step forward in arriving at a much truer version of myself.”  
 
Born and raised in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia, Castle moved to Nashville in 1998 with his popular college jam band TOAST, which also featured his sister Brandy Davie.  After two albums, TOAST disbanded.  Brandy is featured on backing vocals on the new album, making it the first time in 16 years they have been featured on an album together. 
 
Not So Soft Landing… Track List:
1. Ride 
2. She Kills 
3. American Dream 
4. How Long 
5. Weekend Brawl 
6. Sunday 
7. Medicine 
8. Self 
9. Mercurial Love 
10. Change 
 
Jerry Castle On Tour:
May 30th - Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge 
June 1st - Asheville, NC Isis Music Hall 
June 2nd - Knoxville, TN WDVX Blue Plate Special 
June 23rd - Nashville, TN The Basement 
June 24th - Cincinnati, OH Stanley’s Pub 
June 25th - Louisville, KY Gallery K 
June 26th - Bloomington, IN The Players Pub 
July 18th - St. Louis, MO Evangalines 
July 22nd - Memphis, TN Newby’s 
August 18th - Los Angeles, CA Genghis Cohen 
August 23rd - Seattle, WA High Dive 
 
www.jerrycastle.com