* En anglais uniquement
Paul Burch is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and recording engineer. Though he was a member of the Nashville-based alt-country band
Lambchop from 1997 to 2005, multi-instrumentalist
Burch has forged a solo career as an old-school country artist whose sound deliberately evokes the vintage honky tonk era in Nashville and the rockabilly of
Sam Phillips' Sun Studios in Memphis. In addition to his own recordings,
Burch has worked on dozens of dates with everyone from
Bobby Bare and
Charlie Louvin to the
Waco Brothers,
Laura Cantrell, and
Richard Bennett. Beginning with Pan American Flash in 1996,
Burch began to craft a warm, immediate sound based on live studio recording. After 2000's quintessential Blue Notes and 2003's
Fool for Love, he developed a reputation as a savvy songwriter and producer. Beginning with 2006's
East to West, he started working with proto rockabilly and early country rock. In 2011, he released the widely celebrated
Words of Love: Songs of Buddy Holly. Burch & the WPA Ballclub issued Trovatore: The Lives of Eugene Walter in 2018.
Born and raised in rural Maryland and Virginia,
Paul Burch enjoyed the music scene of 1970s Washington, D.C., with his family taking him to see such big names as
Gram Parsons,
Emmylou Harris, and
John Prine. An occasional member of
Lambchop, the Nashville-based singer/songwriter made his solo debut in 1998 with Pan-American Flash. Wire to Wire followed later that same year, and Blue Notes was released in mid-2000. The following year, Last of My Kind, inspired by Tony Earley's novel Jim the Boy, arrived. He released the album
East to West in 2006; recorded in British Grove Studios in London, as well as in Nashville, the record featured
Mark Knopfler and
Ralph Stanley.
In 2009, Burch & the WPA Ballclub (Jim Gray,
Fats Kaplin,
Dennis Crouch,
Jen Gunderman, and Marty Lynds) issued Still Your Man, an all-new collection of songs recorded in a converted warehouse on the outskirts of Nashville's Music Row. Released in 2011, the tribute album
Words of Love: Songs of Buddy Holly was recorded live in the studio, employing a minimalist's arsenal of upright bass, drums, and guitar peppered with the occasional blast of saxophone and accordion. It was followed in 2012 by Great Chicago Fire, a collaboration with
the Waco Brothers. In November 2013, Burch & the WPA Ballclub released
Fevers, a selection of tunes informed by rockabilly, hard country swing, and honky tonk. The album was co-produced by the artist with multi-instrumentalist
Fats Kaplin, with guest vocalist
Kelly Hogan lending a hand. In 2016,
Burch released
Meridian Rising, "an imagined musical autobiography" of the country legend
Jimmie Rodgers. He neither followed the conventions of a traditional tribute album nor the contours of a biographical outing. Free of historical trappings,
Burch dreamed up musical scenarios for
Rodgers that didn't necessarily adhere to written history, and tipped a hat to
Rodgers' jazz and blues contemporaries.
Three years later,
Burch issued
Light Sensitive. In addition to the erstwhile WPA Ballclub, his cast of collaborators included
Robyn Hitchcock,
Luther Dickinson,
Amy Rigby, and
Aaron Lee Tasjan. Its contents blurred boundaries between the roots genres of rockabilly, blues, balladry, and atmospheric sounds inspired by various geographic locales from the American South. ~ Jason Ankeny