Indie-rock band Tiger Saw. Photo by Chris Côté
The release of Tiger Saw’s ninth album, “Card Tricks for the Love Sick,” coincides with the indie rock band’s 25th anniversary.
The album comprises 11 songs that are all well crafted, lyrically astute and musically intriguing.
The six-member New England-based band features three members who live in Maine. The other half in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
The band was founded in Newburyport, Massachusetts, by singer Dylan Metrano. Tiger Saw has since played hundreds of shows on three continents. Collaborations have included members of Deer Tick, Dirty Projectors, Pearl & The Beard and Brown Bird. Early releases skewed toward slowcore with its sound segueing into Americana and experimental pop.
“Throughout the years, Tiger Saw has consistently been an avenue for me to explore the music that has been interesting and inspiring to me, no matter what the genre is,” Metrano said in an interview last week.
The band’s lineup has shifted over the course of 25 years, but Metrano said that has impacted Tiger Saw in a positive way. “It’s been through different people and players, and they all bring something unique to the sound with a different approach to playing and with different instruments.”
“Card Tricks for the Love Sick” features several guest musicians, including singers Helena Gabrielsson from the Swedish band Cake on Cake and Virginia-based Sarah White, along with David Michael Curry on viola, Soggy Po Boys singer Stu Dias and clarinetist Eric Klaxton. Collectively, the songs are like well-executed recipes made with the exact type and amount of spice.
Album cover art for the Tiger Saw album “Card Tricks for the Love Sick” Art by Jennifer Davis, design by Dylan Metrano
“Card Tricks for the Love Sick” opens with the track “Lucky Star.” While not a Madonna cover, there are quick references to the pop star’s song of the same name, as well as Aerosmith’s “Dream On” and The Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” “I wear the night like a heavy cloak/I remember the laughs but never the jokes,” sings Metrano with an edge of assertiveness that’s rife with anguish but not harsh on the ears.
Hearing the opening strains of “The Ballad of Gram and Keith” is like pushing open saloon doors, thanks to Hamilton Belk’s pedal steel guitar. The song is meant as a tribute to Gram Parsons and Keith Richards.
“Always You” features the ethereal vocals of Gabrielsson and includes perhaps the best line of the entire album: “You and I took to old fashioneds/Like the Muppets took to Manhattan.” Surely, it’s the first time whiskey has been paired with the likes of Kermit the Frog.
The album also includes a cover of a song by late singer-songwriter Vic Chestnutt, who died in 2009 at the age of 45. “Flirted With You All My Life” is on Chestnutt’s “At The Cut” and is a stark conversation with mortality. “Oh, death you hector me/Decimate those dear to me/Tease me with your sweet relief/You are cruel and you are constant.”
Tiger Saw’s version adds piano and slows down the tempo just a touch while adding a fuller arrangement that includes double bass, synths, 12-string guitar and rich backing vocals. It’s different enough to be their own while still bringing forth Chestnutt’s torment. Metrano said the entire band sings harmonies on stage when performing the song live.
“It feels really good. Music has the ability to look at things in different ways and make you feel like you’re part of something.”
Metrano lives in Bath and has been in Maine for about 16 years. Guy Capecelatro III lives in Kittery, and Marc McElroy is in Eliot. The rest of the band, Chris Côté, Alan Bull and Erik Tans are in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
“Card Tricks for the Love Sick” was produced by Capecelatro III at the Electric Cove in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Squirrel Sounds in Kittery. Additional recordings happened in Arkansas, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia, London (England) and Stockholm (Sweden).
Find the album on streaming platforms, on CD and through Metrano’s online shop La Nef Chocolate, which sells chocolate bars that come with MP3 download codes. It’s available through Burst & Bloom Records mail order exclusively.
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