After the resounding sold out six months in advance at the Alcatraz in Milan, and the announcement of the concert event at the Verona Arena on 12 July 2020, THE LUMINEERS will return to Italy for a new date: Sunday 5th July in ROME, for an unmissable event by ROCK IN ROMA.
THE LUMINEERS are back on the music scene with “III”, the third studio album released on September 13th via Dualtone, Universal distribution. Their engaging sound has climbed the world rankings, winning millions of fans. Their self-titled debut album was nominated for a Grammy Award for “Best New Artist” and “Best Americana Album”, staying for 46 weeks at # 2 on the Billboard 200. “Ho Hey”, the single that established their success , remained for a full 62 weeks in # 3 position on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching over 142 million views on YouTube. “Cleopatra”, their second album was certified DISCO DI PLATINO.
THE LUMINEERS was born in 2005 from the meeting between guitarist and singer Wesley Schultz and drummer Jeremiah Fraites, both of whom grew up in Ramsey, a suburb south of New York. In 2009 they print a first EP, but the success comes in 2011 when the song “Ho Hey” is noticed and used as the theme song for the TV series “Hart of Dixie”. The band then signs a contract with Dualtone Records and on April 3, 2012 publishes its debut album, simply titled “The Lumineers”. Four years after the record that consecrated them, the band returns to the music scene with a second work, “Cleopatra”, produced by Simon Felice, which shows how Schultz and Fraites have not given their luck for granted, nor are they sitting on your laurels. Three years have passed and The Lumineers are ready to make their return to the music scene with “III”, due out for Dualtone, Universal distribution, on September 13th: every note and every syllable are full of emotions.
For this project Schultz and Fraites wanted to renew their collaboration with Simone Felice and violinist Lauren Jacobson. With them also the pianist Stelth Ulvang, the vocalist and bassist Byron Isaacs and the multi-instrumentalist Brandon Miller, while the cellist and singer Neyla Pekarek, after 8 years, left the group in 2018 to pursue a solo career.
The work is titled “III” not only because it is the third studio album of the band, but, more significantly, because nine of the songs that compose it are presented in three chapters, each focusing on different characters (in addition to the nine songs, the album contains three bonus tracks that are not part of the narrative). The project was born from a series of unconnected elements, taken from the pages of a diary that Schultz wrote more than a decade ago: in these notes he talks about the harrowing attempt to save a relative from alcoholism, his family and his childhood .
The idea for the new album begins to take hold in 2017 while the band was in Catskills, where Felice lives and works. In collaboration with Fraites, whose expressive piano plays a central role in the drama and beauty of these songs, Schultz refined and linked the characters who lived in the songs they composed. The result is the story of three generations of the same family: the grandmother, Gloria Sparks; his son, Jimmy Sparks; and his nephew, Junior Sparks.
When people listen to ‘Ho Hey’ they think it’s a sunny song. All right, that was our intent, we wanted it to be that way and wanted that atmosphere. But this was seven years ago, and our lives have changed considerably since then.
Jeremiah Fraites
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