ALEX DUPREE - Talking To The Dog ALEX DUPREE

Alex Dupree's Talking to the Dog takes its title and guiding principle from a piece of wisdom attributed to Hank Williams: "Writing a song is just talking to the dog."

Over the course of his 20-plus-year career, Dupree has established himself as a songwriter of rare composure and grace, and on Talking to the Dog he finds the band, the chords, and the arrangements to inject an almost inconceivable richness of colour into his musical ideas.

The album has been praised as a mid-career masterpiece, drawing comparisons with the work of Cass McCombs, Bill Callahan, Neko Case, Ryan Davis, Joanna Newsom, and Will Oldham. Songs such as Voyager Blues, New Meaning, and Zodiac evoke the spirit of Jim Sullivan's U.F.O., Gene Clark's No Other, and David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name, while maintaining a distinctive voice of their own.

For all of its high-concept lyricism, Talking to the Dog never feels heavy or ponderous. Instead, it captures the spontaneity of a band playing together in the room, with performances that feel immediate, instinctive, and alive.