#zachary cale

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Zachary Cale - Love's Work

Though we know him as a reliably great and insightful singer-songwriter, Love's Work, Zachary Cale's first completely instrumental album, doesn't feel remotely like a one-off lark. Instead, it fits perfectly into his discography, a fascinating new chapter in the ongoing musical project that Cale has been working on for more than 20 years now. The LP finds the common ground between Takoma School rambles and ECM elegance, the playful melodicism of Penguin Cafe Orchestra and southern Indian classical (via the stirring strings of Carnatic duo Arun Ramamurthy and Trina Basu). With bassist Shahzad Ismaily, percussionist Jeremy Gustin, pedal steel-ist JR Bohannon and pianist Robert Boston adding valuable contributions, Cale has crafted a real gem here. No words, but saying a lot.

[dustedmagazine]

Vague Plot — Crying in 9 (Island House)

Vague Plot’s jams shimmer like highways melting in the heat, running straight on through Kansas or Nebraska until they disappear in the undecipherable distance. Which is to say, they go on for while, repeating the same short grooves ad infinitum, with modest changes, until the measures blow by like mile markers and the journey transcends itself.

“Moto” which opens, metes out the time in sharp, strummed intervals, a little syncopation marking irregular edges in the tick-tocky flow. And within that context, a sax can wail, a guitar can howl, a lick can bloom and fade and collapse in distortion. There’s order so that disorder can grow, a white picket fence around wild tangles of vegetation.

Vague Plot is made up of New York City avant-indie regulars, veterans of other bands, who got together to make driving, moving, long-form instrumental music a la Can and Popul Vuh during the pandemic. The one you’d probably pick out of a line-up first is Zachary Cale, here one of two guitarists, alongside Uriah Theriaultof Woodsy Pride. Phil Jacob of Psychic Lines plays the sax sometimes and a keyboard otherwise, while Ben Copperhead plays bass and John Studer drums.

The music grows contemplative in blues-tinged “Haunted Head” before spinning off into psychotropic grooves, like some weird mesh of Loren Connors and Om. It attains purity in the slow-evolving tones of closer “Windswept” which has a bit of Kluster in its crystalline lucidity.

You might think, with Cale involved, that there’s be a rustic rocker thread in Vague Plot’s aesthetic, a little Neil Young crashing through the motorisms. There mostly isn’t, sorry to disappoint, except oddly enough, on the tape’s best cut, “Cyclic.” Here Jacob’s sax wanders in and around a heavy groove that’s ever so slightly shaded with country rock tones. It’s a puzzle palace, a metronomic experiment in extended pulse, but with a ragged heart, and it’s the wildest and most excellent part of an excellent little album. Fuck the cowbell. Let’s have more guitar.

Jennifer Kelly    

[details2decern]

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

All One Song - "Ambulance Blues" with Zachary Cale

Welcome back to All One Song, a Neil Young podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. What are we doing here? We’re talking to some of our favorite musicians and writers about their favorite Neil Young songs.

And we have got a doozy of a Neil Young song to talk about today — “Ambulance Blues”! First appearing as the closing track on Neil’s 1974 masterpiece On the Beach, this is one of the man’s major works, a long, dark dirge that surveys the surreal mid-1970s landscape, from Patty Hearst to Richard Nixon, all accompanied by a brilliantly skeletal musical backdrop from Ben Keith, Rusty Kershaw, Ralph Molina and the mysterious Joe Yankee. It’s a towering tune, haunting and haunted, but also with a glimmer of hope shining through.

“Ambulance Blues” culminates with that cautious hope, with lines that Neil likely wrote with Nixon in mind:

I never knew a man could tell so many lies

He had a different story for every set of eyes

How can he remember who he’s talking to?

‘Cause I know it ain’t me, and I hope it isn’t you

And it was probably that verse that made Neil bring “Ambulance Blues” out of the garage last year to open shows on most of his tour with the Chrome Hearts. Of course, more than 50 years after Neil wrote the song, Nixon’s transgressions seem positively quaint in light of our current president’s ever-expanding list of outrageous crimes. In 2025, that concluding sentiment hit home like never before—a plea to see beyond the endless falsehoods and mirages that plague our lives these days. As Young says elsewhere in “Ambulance Blues”: “There ain’t nothing like a friend who can tell you you’re just pissin’ in the wind.” He was that friend back in the 1970s and he remains that friend today.

It's hard to say the meaning of this song — but here to help us decode the mysteries and metaphors of “Ambulance Blues” today is NYC-based singer-songwriter Zachary Cale. Zach has been making terrific records for more than two decades now, all centered on his expert guitarwork, sweet vocals and piercing lyrics. His latest album, however, doesn’t feature any of the latter element. Love’s Work is a purely instrumental affair, with Cale joined by bassist Shahzad Ismaily, percussionist Jeremy Gustin, pedal steel-ist JR Bohannon and pianist Robert Boston for a collection of gorgeous reveries. But throw a dart anywhere in Zach’s growing discography and you’ll find great sounds, guaranteed.

Bonus Track: Neil debuted "Ambulance Blues" in 1974 and promptly discarded the song for well over 20 years — until a Bridge School benefit show in 1998, where he played it with R.E.M. It's a towering performance, as is Neil's subsequent guest spot on "Country Feedback."

[dustedmagazine]

Zachary Cale — Next Year’s Ghost (Org Music)

You think of Zachary Cale.You think of a guitar. Indeed, the Dusted review of his pandemic-era epic False Spring in 2022 started right away with the six-string, observing, “Zachary Cale has a guitar sound that is instantly recognizable, very warm and clear and lucid, surrounded by an amplifying echo but fundamentally unhazed by overtones. Whether acoustic or electric, his playing speaks to you plainly, directly and rather beautifully.” Well you can forget about all that this time, because with Next Year’s Ghost, Cale moves to the piano (and other keyboards). The first note you hear on this eight-song album is the low, reverberating tone found at the far left end of the piano keyboard, and it ushers in a moody, ruminative set of songs with far less guitar than usual.

The story is that Cale spent part of the pandemic wandering over the bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn, ending up at artist friend’s studio Red Hook that happened to house a piano. He played at first as a form of therapy, a way to escape the fear and boredom of COVID’s first waves. But over time, songs emerged, with dark-toned and lingering melodies and lyrics about human fragility.

Cale wrote these songs for voice and piano but he brought in friends to realize them fully. Shahzad Ismaily works his subtle atmospherics in bass and various synthesizers. Woodsy Pride guitarist Uriah Theriault fills in on electric. Jeremy Gustin of Delicate Steve and Okkervil River plays the drums.Other Brooklynites turn in arresting cameos like JR Bohannon’s pedal steel in “House on Fire” and Anni Rossi and Brent Arnold’s mini-string section in the haunting “Fragile Line.” There’s no escaping the brooding pall that these songs cast, but the arrangements lend them a bit of lightness and mobility.

Consider, for instance, “Fragile Line” which emerges out of the smoke and shadows of effected guitar, a flickering blues in the way its tone flares and swells. Then the piano joins in, a steady, regular motif giving the song clarity and purpose. Cale’s voice is strong and sound here, cutting through the sound effortlessly and reaching up into the higher registers in the chorus without faltering. And yet though he sings easily, the emotions he describes are more difficult: doubt, confusion, inability to see the point of it all.“Such a fragile line, scribbled on a wall, was that a joke or a prayer, in the bathroom stall,”he croons, and who knows? It was a weird couple of years.

“House on Fire” is one of the best of these songs. Cale sings in the most beautifully resigned way about everything going to shit, a shrug at losses too steep to measure. Still it’s the way that JR Bohannon’s pedal steel weaves the desolation that makes it so good, the way that it threads beauty through the wreckage. Like it, early single “Shatterstar,” puts sad, grey lyrics into a nearly hopeful context, the piano riff lilting up, the chorus a balm, the melody letting a little bit of sunshine slip through the gloom. 

Jennifer Kelly

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Emergency Group / Seawind of Battery / Zachary Cale + Robert Boston + JR Bohannon - Tubby's, Kingston, New York, May 16, 2023

Let's hang out at Tubby's for a little longer, shall we? I've never been, but judging by the shows the club books, it's an extremely cool spot. Last month, Island House Records hosted a little showcase situation featuring three excellent acts. Thanks to Kliked for taping!

First up, the always wonderful Zachary Cale, who plays a laid-back but quite elegant set with Robert Boston (keys) and J.R. Bohannon (pedal steel); Zach is a great singer-songwriter, of course, but he's also a great guitarist, and the mostly instrumental stuff he plays here bodes well for whatever he has up his sleeve next. The Neil Young cover is aces, too.

Next! Seawind of Battery offers up some very dreamy soundscapes, with Mike Horn looping his shimmery guitar masterfully around Jarrod Annis' beautiful lap steel work. SoB's Clockwatching was a favorite from last year, but if this set is anything to go off of, Horn is just getting started.

And finally! Emergency Group, whose radical debut on Island House has been playing constantly in my house for the past couple of months — as I said in my review, it's a "massive slab of Electric Miles-inspired jams." And as a live act, they certainly don't disappoint, stretching out and digging in, making magical moments happen with frightening regularity.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

DOOM & GLOOM 2017

The doomiest & gloomiest year of all? Maybe! But at least there were bootlegs to get us through our shared dark night of the soul, right? Totally. Here are the D&GFTT exclusives for ya, in case you missed any of them. And also don’t miss the Sunday Re-Ups!

Daniel Bachman - Cabin Floor Records, Greenville, South Carolina, January 2017

Zachary Cale - The Whistler, Chicago, Illinois, October 13, 2016

Patti Smith - Zellerbach Theatre, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, October 16, 2003

Young Marble Giants - Live 1980

Sonic Youth - Cat’s Cradle, Carborro, North Carolina, August 19, 2004

Stereolab - La Luna, Portland, Oregon, November 20, 1997

Neil Young - Eurotour 2003

Stones Jam - Max’s Kansas City, New York City, July 24, 1978

“Down By The River” - Neil Young & Crazy Horse, The Electric Factory, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 28, 1970

The Feelies - Maxwell’s, Hoboken, New Jersey, May 9, 1986

“Moonlight Mile” - The Jerry Garcia Band, Moore’s Egyptian Theater, Seattle, Washington, March 6, 1976

Don Cherry - Italy 1974

Sandy Denny - York University, England, October 14, 1972

Leonard Cohen - Montreux Jazz Festival, June 25, 1976

Pavement - La Luna, Portland, Oregon, April 18, 1997

Sonic Youth - Philipshalle, Dusseldorf, Germany, April 7, 1996

Sandy Denny - Eltham Well Open Theatre, London, England, May 8, 1972

Miles Davis - Theatro Municipal, São Paulo, Brazil, May 28, 1974

John Cale - Unreleased Songs

Royal Trux - Peel Session, 11/93

Richard & Linda Thompson - Aurora Theater, Baltimore, Maryland, May 13, 1982

Neil Young - Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, California, January 5, 1983

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, California, February 7, 1984

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Spooking the Horse

The Feelies + Richard Lloyd - Max’s Kansas City, New York City, New York, January 19, 1978

The Grateful Dead - Almost Ablaze

Wet Tuna - Ceremony, Brooklyn, New York, December 9, 2017

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Zachary Cale - The Whistler, Chicago, Illinois, October 13, 2016

Something great for you today: a full solo set from singer-songwriter Zachary Cale, recorded at The Whistler in Chicago last fall, in between gigs opening for Destroyer. The Whistler has kindly started offering up free or “name your price” downloads of live performances taped at the venue -- there’s something new every Monday, so be sure to bookmark this page. 

Cale’s set is fantastic, featuring a nice overview of his past work, along with two covers -- Cale’s tense reimagining of Robert Johnson’s “Love In Vain,” and a wonderfully brooding rendition of the Gun Club’s “Mother of Earth.” We’re just hearing acoustic guitar and vocals here, but I’m impressed with how Zach cannily employs reverb, phaser and delay to add a pleasingly cosmic element to his performance. Absorbing tones abound. And his fingerpicking is razor sharp as well; everything sounds locked in and powerful.

Anyway! Whether you’re new to Cale or know his stuff, you’re gonna like this. Thanks to Zach for giving the go-ahead for sharing this, thanks to Dave Zuchowski for his beautiful recording/mixing job, and thanks to Billy Helmkamp for passing it along to me ... enjoy!