Seth Glier’s new album ‘The Coronation’ is an invitation to forge a new, more beautiful world out of the current chaos. His sixth album on MPress Records, ‘The Coronation’ is a beautiful and powerful collection that explores an expansive range of musical styles and topics from the personal to the political. After touring 250 dates a year for half his life, not being on the road in 2020 allowed Glier to write from a place of stillness, and alongside the album, he’s also produced a stunning, raw and emotive cover of Joan Osborne's ‘One Of Us’.
Produced and sung by Glier (who plays the Juno), and joined on vocals by Raye Zaragoza, the version of the song captures the universality of the original while adding an ethereal feel. Grounding the song is an earthy pedal steel, played by Ryan Hommel (Amos Lee, Heather Maloney). Originally released by Joan Osborne and written by Eric Bazilian, Glier elaborates, "I think Eric Bazilian caught a whale when we wrote ‘One of Us’. The idea is so huge, and the delivery is so simple. There is a sense of God’s loneliness in this song that I related so strongly with. Eric’s question 'Would you want to see if seeing meant that you would have to believe?' felt so appropriate to the theme of this album. Am I willing to be accountable to what you know to be true?"
A Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist from Western Massachusetts, Glier has also won five Independent Music Awards. NPR describes his voice as “otherworldly” while praising him as “an engaging performer and storyteller.” His critically acclaimed, emotionally dense catalogue of work often draws upon traditional roots in music, experimental instrumentation, and moody atmospheres that result in soulfully intelligent stories that can alternately fight the power and break your heart.
The credits behind ‘The Coronation’ reflect the spirit of interconnectedness explored in the album’s lyrics. “I knew at the onset that I wanted to work with many different people and producers on this record, but I don’t think I knew why until after finishing it,” Seth explains. “Being in collaboration is a constant reminder that our actions have profound effects on the subsequent actions of others and how powerful it is to be united in common cause.”
“I think collaboration might be what makes ‘The Coronation’ a cohesive album,” Glier says. “It’s wildly diverse from song to song, and the making of it began to mirror a new world I wanted to live in.”
Glier will share songs from ‘The Coronation’ on the road later this year while continuing to connect with audiences using his eclectic, often humorous, and always insightful artistry. Summing up the project, Glier says, "’The Coronation’ marks the emergence of our collective unconscious into consciousness and the transcendence of compulsion into choice. I look at the last year of lockdown as sort of like an extended rehab healing us from the story of separation and offering us the courage to forge a new crown and become the rulers of that which had ruled us.”
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