CELEBRATED SONGWRITER RELEASES NEW ALBUM, CAMELOT, OUT NOW ON PARADISE OF BACHELORS (WORLDWIDE) AND SOLSTICE RADIO (CANADA)
RECORD RELEASE SHOWS IN TORONTO THIS DECEMBER
WESTERN CANADIAN TOUR DATES BEGIN JANUARY 22, 2025
BUY / STREAM CAMELOT HERE
WATCH / SHARE “BLOWING KISSES” HERE
“Jennifer Castle’s Camelot, as mapped on her seventh album … is a battleground of opposing tensions, set against the divisive times of the present. There are ambiguities and contradictions, ecstatic visions and crises of faith. And a quest, not for some imagined grail, but for earthly and private resolutions. It’s all fixed to music of the exquisite variety, from radiant acoustic studies to billowing symphonic pop. Camelot feels like a landmark in Castle’s career. It’s certainly her most all-embracing record to date.” - UNCUT Album of The Month
“I don’t want to teach anybody anything with a song. I’m not trying to steer anybody towards anything with a song. I’m not trying to be manipulative. I’m trying to let it out,” she says. “I must want it to come into being, so I just try to let it out as honestly as I can and then work from there.” - Aquarium Drunkard Letting The Songs Out
“Balancing between the celestial and the earthly, the songwriter embraces acoustic minimalism and sweeping, psychedelic extremes. As Castle continues to chase revelations, her enrapturing music continues to flow.” RANGE Magazine Album Review
Photo Credit : Jimmy Limit // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Today, celebrated songwriter Jennifer Castle shares her newest full-length Camelot, available now via Paradise of Bachelors and Solstice Radio. An extraordinary, moving chronicle of the artist in early middle age, Camelot charts a realer, more rooted, and more metaphorical place than the fabled Camelot of the Early Middle Ages (or its myriad depictions), but it too is a space more psychic than physical. In Castle’s Camelot, the fantastic interpenetrates the mundane, and the Grail, if there is one, distills everyday experience into art and art into faith, subliming terrestrial concerns into sublime celestial prayers to Mother Nature, and to the unfolding process of perfecting imperfection in one’s own nature. Co-produced by Jennifer and longtime collaborator Jeff McMurrich, her seventh record is at once her most monumental and unguarded to date, demonstrating a mastery of rendering her verse and melodies alike with crisply poignant economy. For all their pointedly plainspoken lyrical detail and exhilarating full-band musical flourishes, these songs sound inevitable, eternal as morning devotions.
Jennifer Castle recently played a string of live dates, starting in Canada, followed by shows in Scandinavia and is next set to perform in Toronto to celebrate Camelot on December 21st and 22nd at Tranzac Club. In January, Jennifer will embark on a run of dates throughout Western Canada. Full tour dates can be found below.
BUY / STREAM CAMELOT HERE
WATCH / SHARE “BLOWING KISSES” HERE
Camelot includes the ravishing country-soul ballad “Blowing Kisses,” which was originally released as a single in June following a three and a half year hiatus, along with a video which she created to accompany the single. Featuring a sweeping string arrangement by Owen Pallett, performed by Estonia's FAMES Skopje Studio Orchestra, “Blowing Kisses” can be heard in its entirety during the pivotal scene of the penultimate episode of the third season of FX's The Bear. Jennifer discussed the song’s use on the show and the serendipitous backstory, involving her longtime friendship with Matty Matheson (Canadian chef and restaurateur who portrays the beloved handyman Neil Fak on the show) and their real-life history working together in a restaurant, in this terrific interview for CBC. ”Blowing Kisses” also caught the attention of Rolling Stone, Brooklyn Vegan, Consequence, Esquire and many more upon its release.
August saw the release “Lucky #8,” an irrepressible ode to dancing as a bulwark against the “tidal pools of pain” and the “theory of collapse, “ featuring special guest Cass McCombs on slide guitar. The release of “Lucky #8” accompanied the Camelot album announcement with a tender video Jennifer created using footage of heroic, historic gymnastics routines that were a formative part of her childhood. Now seen through the rearview, these routines take on a new poignance and are embraced differently in Castle’s adulthood. As she gratefully sings in the song’s chorus, “so just give the money to the dancers / while their hips go figure eight / and they entrance us with the answers / and we hope and pray the message ain’t too late.” According to Jennifer Castle, “Lucky #8” “sort of has that energetic vibe to it, where it attempts a stunt lyrically (in my mind) to absorb all the possibilities of life into one moment and to be okay with that complexity, instead of fracturing off into myriad neurotic narratives.”
WATCH / SHARE “LUCKY #8” HERE
The achingly beautiful, incantatory single “Earthsong,” was released in September, anchored by a compelling spare solo performance and coiled chord progression, an ambiguous appeal to … a wounded lover? a wounded saint? our wounded planet? Possibly all of all of the above, as the lyrics suggest: “I'm never just your girl/I belong to the world/ And sometimes I feel that pull/ Succumb to it and start to twirl/ And doorways will have to do/ Hallways and mirrors too/ Step through, I’m feeling free/ From this landlocked modernity.” According to Castle, “‘Earthsong’ was one of the last songs I wrote for what would become Camelot. Seeded from hope, imagination, destiny and resistance, the line that works on me like medicine is ‘I belong to the world.’ Feels good to say and mean that.”
Read more about the album at www.killbeatmusic.com/jennifercastle
WATCH / SHARE “EARTHSONG” HERE
LIVE PERFORMANCES
Dec 20 & 21 - Tranzac Club, Toronto, ON, Canada - Solstice/Camelot Release Show
Jan 22 - Artesian, Regina, SK, Canada
Jan 23 - Handsome Daughter, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Jan 24 - TBD, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Jan 25 - CKUA Performance Space, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Jan 26 - Palomino, Calgary, AB, Canada
Feb 14 - St Luke's Church at Queens Park, Brighton, UK
Feb 15 - EartH, London, UK
Feb 17 - St Mary's Creative Space, Chester, UK
MORE PRAISE FOR JENNIFER CASTLE & CAMELOT
“Jennifer Castle has been in communion with the cosmos for as long as we’ve been listening, and certainly for at least a little while longer than that. On ‘Lucky #8,’ the lead single from her forthcoming new album, Camelot, she emerges as an ambassador for celestial divinity—leaping in song in celebration of its ability to liberate us of our existential dread, almost parental in its omniscient embrace.” - Aquarium Drunkard
“Looking to have an emotional connection with the greater world? Might we encourage you to let Jennifer Castle help you find your way. The opening moment {of “Earthsong”} alone tugs at you, grounds you, connects you and Castle as one. Then, her voice enters, almost frolicking, carefree but still pensive in its presentation. For all intents and purposes, it does feel woodsy or pastoral, taking that Earth connection beyond literal and letting the emotional draw of the strum lock you into the sense of wonderment.” - Austin Town Hall
“Carefully burnished and open-armed, “Blowing Kisses” is… sophisticated, symphonic and soulful.” - The Autumn Roses
“Canadian artist Jennifer Castle’s new album Camelot is due out on November 1 via Paradise of Bachelors and Solstice Radio, and she’s given us another preview with ‘Earthsong,’ a beautiful, meditative folk song.” - Brooklyn Vegan
“A master of channeling both everyday enigmas and larger existential ones, Jennifer Castle creates songs that shelter. The indie folk singer-songwriter’s new single {“Lucky #8”} has the streamlined forward motion of a swan landing on a still lake, a graceful figure splashing down with waves of propulsive guitars.” - The FADER (Songs You Need In Your Life)
“A new single from Jennifer Castle’s upcoming album slips out today. Draped in a pastoral, autumnal aura, the song acts as a declaration of belonging to this world — a simple premise, but sometimes one that feels needed. It’s a song that slows the day, turns the hands on the clock just a little bit less, and lets the listener soak in the slow arc of nature. With its intimate atmosphere, ‘Earthsong’ invites the listener in and wraps them in strums and Castle’s Chamomile phrasing.” - Raven Sings The Blues
“If you’ve been watching The Bear (and if you’re not, you should be!), you might have already gotten to the part in the penultimate episode where {“Blowing Kisses”} plays. How it got there is an interesting story, too. Canadian singer-songwriter Castle used to work at a restaurant in Toronto with Matty Matheson, who plays Neil Fak on the show (and is a chef/restaurateur in real life). She sent him the song and he shared it with the TV show’s team, which has already been batting a thousand with needle drops. This beautiful piano ballad turned out to be perfect for the scene.” - Riff Magazine/Tuesday Tracks
