Tica Douglas

The nine songs of Tica Douglas' new record Summer Valentine explore two landscapes: Tica’s hometown on the coast of Maine, where she composed the songs in the Summer of 2012, and an old barn house upstate in Patterson, NY, where she recorded them during the coldest week of the Winter of 2013.

As a songwriter, Tica refuses to turn away from age-old themes: heartbreak, desire, vows of friendship. Yet her lyrics are filled with invention and the subtleties of her voice never cease to pioneer new sonic spaces.

As a kid, Tica naturally gravitated toward the male songwriters of her parents' generation: the Beatles, Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan. Yet unlike the rest of us, Tica found comfort in a certain uncategorizable strain in these male voices, something that went beyond the regular lilt of the crooners, and the coarseness of the rockers. She heard another kind of male voice- or the possibility for a new type of male voice, perhaps heard most clearly in Dylan’s Nashville Skyline- and it furnished her musical imagination and gave her hope. It was in her childhood home, searching for versions of this uncategorizable male voice, that Tica grew up and developed as a songwriter.

Up at the barn, Tica’s band - consisting of members of Double King (Brooklyn, NY), as well as the pitch-perfect folk prodigy Kyle Morgan (Harrisburg, PA) - set up their studio. The downstairs of the barn became the live room and quickly filled with instruments of all kinds, from electric guitars and banjos to microkorgs glockenspiels. From there, a 100-ft snake cable led to what was once a hay loft, where producer Andrew Lappin (Vensaire, Double King, Throw Vision) recorded and engineered in his makeshift control room.

In the days that followed, when Patterson hit its low of 3 degrees, the band literally played to keep warm- blankets weren’t enough. If you listen to the record closely, you might just hear the heat pipes cough.

TOUR DATES

5/27 | Brooklyn, NY @ Manhattan Inn 
5/28 | Brooklyn, NY @ Cameo Gallery 
5/31 | Hudson, NY @ The Spotty Dog
6/2 | Rochester, NY @ The Bug Jar
6/4 | Lebanon, NH @ Salt Hill
6/5 | Hanover, NH @ Dartmouth College
6/6 | Biddeford, ME @ Oak and Axe
6/10 | Portsmouth, NH @ The Red Door
6/11 | Boston, MA @ All Asia Bar
6/12 | Providence, RI @ Local 21
6/13 | Danbury, CT @ Heirloom Arts Theater 
6/15 | Thomas, WV @ Purple Fiddle
6/16 | Asheville, NC @ Toy Boat
6/17 | Chattanooga, TN @ Camphouse
6/18 | Atlanta, GA @ TBA 
6/19 | Birmingham, AL @ House Show BBQ
6/21 | New Orleans, LA @ Neutral Ground Coffee
6/26 | Savannah, GA @ TBA
6/27 | Chapel Hill, NC @ The Cave

For more info on Tica Douglas, visit:
http://ticadouglas.com

To experience Tica's past discography, visit:
http://ticadouglas.bandcamp.com