Marc Ribot Details 1st Vocal Album ‘Map Of A Blue City’

Marc Ribot announced his first album featuring his vocals, Map of a Blue City, arriving May 23 via New West Records. Ribot previewed the album with his take on the The Carter Family-recorded traditional “When the World’s on Fire.”

Map of a Blue City is three decades in the making. Writing and home-recording some of the songs in the 1990s, Ribot sent demos to a label but was told they were “too dark.” While he moved on to other projects, the material he created never left his mind.

“I just had an affection for [the songs], so I never forgot about them,” Ribot said. “I wasn’t working on them constantly, but every once in a while I would take another lunge at finishing them.”

One of those lunges included late legendary producer and frequent Ribot collaborator Hal Wilner.

“Hal of course did a great job,” Marc said. “But it became a very big deal with strings and other great musicians. But at the end of it all, I liked my demos better, so we shelved the project again for a while.”

More recently, Marc met Ben Greenberg — producer and guitarist for the Brooklyn industrial band Uniform — who finally helped him realize his vision.

“I didn’t know how I could reconcile the stuff I’d recorded with Willner with the home recordings that I felt were the heart of the record,” Ribot said, “whether I could make everything fit on the same record, but Ben is a total genius. We added some overdubs, but we also took a lot of stuff away, too… Amazingly, it worked!”

The result? Map of a Blue City. Marc detailed the finished product:

“Working on this album for so long, I’ve seen the world change dramatically and not really change at all. Some of the issues today are the same ones I thought about when I was just starting the album, but some are things I couldn’t have dreamt of at the time. But I think that’s why I was so determined to get the production values right. Recording production is really complicated, but it all boils down to what kind of room the listener feels they’re standing in. There are some hard truths and cold observations in these songs. I wanted the room to be small enough so that we couldn’t turn away; but warm enough to feel like you’re hearing it from a friend.”

Speaking about the lead single, “When the World’s on Fire,” Ribot said: “The Carter Family recorded this song in 1930. You have to admit they were way ahead of the curve. I added a few lyrics to make it safe for agnostics.”

Listen to “When the World’s on Fire” below:

Marc Ribot will celebrate the release of Map of a Blue City on June 11 at Brooklyn’s Roulette. Find info on that show below.

Map of a Blue City Tracklist:

1. Elizabeth
2. For Celia
3. Say My Name
4. Daddy’s Trip to Brazil
5. Map of a Blue City
6. Death of a Narcissist
7. When the World’s on Fire
8. Sometime Jailhouse Blues
9. “Optimism of the Spirit”