Description
Expected Release Date: 12-June-2026 – This Pre-order will be shipped on or just before this date. Release dates are subject to alteration.
Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders return with their best album yet, and a UK tour this August. Press by Silver PR
On the alternate timeline where the Meat Puppets inherited the bulk of the Grateful Deads tourheads when Jerry Garcia died in 1995, none of this would be necessary, because Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders are a household name for evolving their own musical space that overlays dusty folk, cosmic jazz, deep psych, free improv, and even (gasp!) indie rock, building an audience that ranges from open-eared curiosity seekers to deep committed music weirdos thats also yielded the Heavy Lidders, an infamous sub-cult of concert tapers that youre already sick of hearing about. A lot of other things are better over on that timeline, too.
But in this consensus reality (and probably the other one, too), Liquid Donnon catches the Lidders at their heaviest, heavy in the Lidderverse being far from a monolithic musical idea. Theres heavy like the album-opening From Loch Raven to Fells Point, one of several tracks with elegant and gnarled conversational jams featuring the core Lidders lineup of Alexander alongside guitarist Drew Gardner and bassist Jesse Sheppard (both of Elkhorn) and drummer Scott Verrastro. But theres heavy, too, like Calliope Walker and Tightroping, featuring Gardner shifted to dream-space vibraphone, the former with saxophonist Tacuma Bradley, the latter with Christina Carter of Texas noise-psych legends Charalambides on veil-crossing wordless vocals, her first collaboration with Alexander in some 20 years.
But then theres also heavy like the cover photo of Alexanders late friend and album namesake Donnon, taken at a Dead show at Rich Stadium in Buffalo in 1989, a spirit threading through the songs and weaving unexpectedly into Alexanders life decades later, emerging especially when Alexander passed through a near-death experience of his own. But, taken together, the different heavies of Liquid Donnon add up into a state of musical grace, where all the Heavy Lidders from all the universes come together as one. Just, like, imagine.
Convened in 2019 on Alexanders relocation back to his native east coast, the Heavy Lidders are the latest hard-touring expression for the guitarists music, joining a vast and tangled discography (and tape list) that includes the beloved long-running west coast Dire Wolves Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band and, before them, the Iditarod and Black Forest/Black Sea, as well as a bushel of solo play-all-the-instruments projects, a stint with Jackie-O Motherfucker, sessions with Kemialliset Ystvt and Avarus and others, and youll have to keep digging for the rest.
And while its not hard to find tapers at Lidders gigs (and they encourage you to be one), or to track themes and songs over Alexanders many live releases, Liquid Donnon makes a new primary text, the original versions of six new pieces for the repertoire. The album closes with a devastating pairing of Reservoir Drop into The Summer Song, floating into a duo between Alexanders guitar and Carters voice. Catch a half-dozen Lidders shows this summer, and you might not ever catch them playing it like that again, but you just might open the doorway back to that better place.” – Jesse Jarnow (writer, WFMU DJ, producer and host of The Good Ol Grateful Deadcast)
JEFFREY ALEXANDER & THE HEAVY LIDDERS UK TOUR AUGUST 2026:
2nd SHEFFIELD- Alder Pub with Bobby Lee 3rd SOWBERY BRIDGE – Puzzle Hall 4th CAMBRIDGE – Portland Arms 5th STOKE ON TRENT – Artisan Tap 6th YORK – The Crescent 7th NOTTINGHAM – JT Soar 8th LONDON – Cafe OTO 9th BUILTH WELLS – Kozfest! 10th HEREFORD Weirdshire
A1.From Loch Raven To Fells Point (7:09) A2. Calliope Wailer (10:01) A3. Tightroping (4:26) B1. Critical Masses (7:48) B2. Reservoir Drop > The Summer Song (12:42)
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