Ben Dickey, the musician and actor who inhabited the role of mercurial singer-songwriter Blaze Foley in the biopic Blaze last year, is set to release his full-length LP A Glimmer on the Outskirts for SexHawkeBlack Records on March 8th. The boutique Americana label based in Austin is a joint venture with Nashvilles Dualtone Records and was co-founded by filmmaker Ethan Hawke, Austin businessman Louis Black and musician-actor Charlie Sexton, who portrayed Townes Van Zandt in the film.
Produced by Sexton, Glimmer is the follow-up to the Blaze soundtrack, which featured Dickeys acclaimed renditions of Foleys songs, including Clay Pigeons, which was previously covered by John Prine. The seeds of Dickeys foray into songwriting and performing were plated, he notes, early in life.
I was surrounded by music as a kid, Dickey told Rolling Stone last summer. My grandfather had a Gibson L30 from the depression era. And when he got sick in 1987, when I was 10 years, he used to always let me play the guitar supervised. He gave it to me about eight months before he passed away, and I took it really seriously, I was like, This is my granddads guitar, so I just took it upon myself to start learning how to play songs.
Dickey, who has generated Oscar buzz for his role as Foley, currently has tour dates scheduled from mid-February through early May, including gigs supporting Hayes Carll.
A Glimmer on the Outskirts track list:
- The Bizzy Waltz
- Sing That One to Me
- Monstrous Moonshine (Come Back Down)
- I Think Its All Different
- The Man With the Hammer
- Eloise
- Stranger on a Silver Horse (Be Amazed)
- Sitting by the Road
- Way Out in the Cotton
- Even If