june madrona

(olympia, wa)
Songs written simply and honestly, performed acoustically. Based upon the guitar and words of Ross Cowman, the varied content and carefully constructed stories of the songs may make you want to dance, cry, sing, think, or just listen as deeply as one can.

This is the fourth June Madrona album. It features Micah Ellison on melodica and Danielle Chiero on flute, and explores themes of family and place. This lineup takes June Madrona's composition to a new level, as Micah and Danielle are both classically trained musicians. The songwriting is as articulate and powerful as ever, and the musical accompaniment lends a gravity and fullness never before heard in June Madrona.

The packaging for this album is a hand-letterpressed cardstock.

(2007)

Themed and titled after a work of William Blake's, June Madrona's second album The Winged Life explores themes of love and control. The lineup on this record is comprised of four people making use of guitar, cello, harp, glockenspiel, banjo, and of course, their voices. Group collaboration and orchestration has brought the band to a new level of maturity on this record. This album is delivered in a hand-made booklet with a silk screened cover. The booklet includes sixteen pages of lyrics, drawings, and photos.

(2006)

Recorded in a yurt next to chickens and a fountain. The song subjects vary from making out in the back of a car on the freeway, to drinking (just a little) too much, to feeling scared and hopeless after waking up to thunder rolling past you in the middle of the night. A broad range of emotions have been covered here, and they have all been written about quite eloquently. The simple stories within are the ones that, for many of us, often end up feeling the most important.

(2005)

Waves with Nowhere to Break is a reworking of the original 2003 release "The Bitter Waves". The album features new and old recordings of Ross' earlier work.