FORMAT: 2XCD

RELEASE DATE: JAN 24, 2005

FILE UNDER: Rock

CATALOG NO: TOE-CD-89

UPC: 806501108920

LIST PRICE: $21.98

BOX LOT: 40

o accompany guitarist Loren Connors (nee Mazzacane) is to discover a strange and forgotten

America, then venture irreversibly beyond. Connors is frequently pegged as an avant bluesman,

and the blues are never far from the surface of his art -- but what a shimmering surface it is! The

brevity and lyricism of his improvisations bear the mark of haiku; the floating, expressionist tones

reflect the influence of Mark Rothko; and as he conjures keening Celtic wails, Connors offers himself

as medium to the ghosts of New York City Past.

With "Sails", Connors enters the third decade of such intimate explorations. In the course of these

two discs, we pass through saturated phrasings, slowly undulating drones, doldrumic introspection

and squalls of white noise. The penultimate highlight is a duet with Connors' aesthetic compadre, the

late, great John Fahey. It's an intuitive and seemingly predestined meeting of two enlightened

fellow-travelers: wily Fahey as the Dr. Livingstone of raw Americana to Connors' indefatigable Stanley.

For his own part, Connors can evoke more clarity and purity in a short cluster of notes than most of

his shred-happy contemporaries can muster in a lifetime -- and with Fahey's passing, he may be

justifiably considered this country's greatest living guitarist.

Ultimately, Loren Connors path, while not for the timid, is one of unspeakable treasure: a journey to

the heart of brightness; a quest to penetrate a Terra Incognita of the soul.

“Connors’ trademarks . . . are consistently prominent and sublime, always inferring something that runs a

little thicker than sound . . . It makes sense that the like-minded John Fahey even saluted Connors on his

final album with a piece using, in part, the same wandering tones and atmosphere, showing that after

the poetries and aesthetics of life are gone, after style and sense are gone, there is something much

harder to deal with – that innate, tangible void that Connors has spent his life tugging at draws ever

near.”

Dusted

“[Connors] is an American original in much the same sense as John Fahey or Jandek, in that he’s chosen a

classically American form, in this case the blues, and in true pioneer spirit taken it off somewhere else,

crossed it with other forms . . . and shaped it into a uniquely individual vision of the modern American

myth . . . [Connors] has created a singularly expressive and unique musical vocabulary. In short, he still

sounds like no one else.”

The Wire

“Loren MazzaCane Connors isn’t a cult hero for no reason. His music is awe-inspiring . . . a one-person

gentle tornado, Connors can get deep into human feelings with a single guitar.”

Pop Matters

To receive additional information, press kits, high-resolution photos, or to schedule

an interview, please visit www.tableoftheelements.com or email

[e-mail]. Thanks!

RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 24, 2005

TOE-CD-89

LOREN CONNORS

SAILS

NEED COVER ART