{"id":3802,"date":"2023-06-07T10:49:49","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T09:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/?p=3802"},"modified":"2023-06-07T11:29:15","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T10:29:15","slug":"karl-culley-stories-save-our-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/karl-culley-stories-save-our-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Karl Culley: Stories Save Our Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Karl Culley showcased songs from his new album Stories Save Our Lives (Loose Wire\u00a0Records) on May 20th \u2013 in Krakow\u2019s Strefa<\/a> Otwarta.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Live, he\u2019s always a treat, his voice\u2019s hushed\u00a0tones the perfect backdrop to the cauldron of percussive sounds he coaxes from his\u00a0instrument. The collective result is intimate, barely amplified, yet somehow cinematic,\u00a0spacious and grand.<\/em><\/h4>\n

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Supporting him for the evening was native New York folk troubadour Alex Rainer<\/strong><\/a>. Armed\u00a0with an acoustic guitar, his striking falsetto vocals and deft finger-picking skills are a melodic\u00a0balm for the most cynically discordant heart. It was only at the end of his set, when he\u00a0covered some classic Americana in the form of Townes Van Zandt\u2019s If I Needed You<\/a> that one\u00a0realises how good his own song-writing actually is, sitting comfortably \u2013 shoulder to\u00a0shoulder \u2013 with the craft of those icons from the past.<\/h5>\n

[\/nk_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][nk_text]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QnpXLtIYT8c[\/nk_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” content_placement=”top”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”3837″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”3836″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1686128199675{padding-top: 50px !important;padding-bottom: 50px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][nk_text]<\/p>\n

Karl Culley has released five albums since 2010 and Stories Save Our Lives will be his sixth. A\u00a0much-loved regular on the Krakow live music scene, tonight\u2019s full house witness an\u00a0understated, terse start to the show, with the tempo gradually building before his unique\u00a0rhythmic picking style streams out in full ebb. Live, he\u2019s always a treat, his voice\u2019s hushed\u00a0tones the perfect backdrop to the cauldron of percussive sounds he coaxes from his\u00a0instrument. The collective result is intimate, barely amplified, yet somehow cinematic,\u00a0spacious and grand. The audience is in his hand, but I often wonder what the addition of\u00a0other instrumentation \u2013 violin, cello, or even a full band \u2013 would bring to his unique sound\u00a0and how it might transform it. He also played some classic numbers from the back catalogue\u00a0\u2013 Elephant Juice, School of the Heart, Qualifier (best song ever written about tennis).<\/h5>\n
Karl Culley\u2019s new album is out now on Loose Wire Records and the album review from Folk
\nRadio UK is available here.<\/h5>\n

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Stories Save Our Lives, follows Culley through the untethered tumult of heartbreak, to his life-changing OCD diagnosis, and culminates in the revelation of newfound balance, of fledgling love, and redemption. Karl once more showcases his virtuosic fingerpicking but this time favors a more delicate, considered approach on classical.<\/span><\/h6>\n
Culley once more teams up with UK producer and musician Daniel Webster (who produced Karl\u2019s second album The Owl) who frames the songs tastefully and provides additional instrumentation including guitar, synth, piano, bass, trumpet and percussion. Backing vocals are provided on three tracks by Lettie, an acclaimed vocalist and songwriter based in London.<\/span><\/h6>\n
from bandcamp<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

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Karl Culley showcased songs from his new album Stories Save Our Lives (Loose Wire Records) on May 20th \u2013 in Krakow\u2019s Strefa Otwarta. Live, he\u2019s always a treat, his voice\u2019s hushed tones the perfect backdrop to the cauldron of percussive sounds he coaxes from his instrument. The collective result is intimate, barely amplified, yet somehow cinematic, spacious and grand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Karl Culley: Stories Save Our Lives | Krak\u00f3w Music Blog","_seopress_titles_desc":"Karl Culley showcased songs from his new album Stories Save Our Lives (Loose Wire Records) on May 20th \u2013 in Krakow\u2019s Strefa Otwarta. Live, he\u2019s always a treat, his voice\u2019s hushed tones the perfect backdrop to the cauldron of percussive sounds he coaxes from his instrument. The collective result is intimate, barely amplified, yet somehow cinematic, spacious and grand.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[33,98],"tags":[409,408,407,152,406],"class_list":["post-3802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-reviews","category-new-album","tag-acoustic-music","tag-alex-rainer","tag-karl-culley","tag-singer-songwriter","tag-strefa"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-30 23:00:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3802"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3841,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3802\/revisions\/3841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krakowmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}