xBk presents
Paisley Fields
w/ Adam Bruce
at the xBk Annex
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10TH
Doors: 6pm | Show: 7pm
All Ages
*Limited seating available on a first come, first served basis*
___________________________
•••Paisley Fields•••
Paisley Fields wants to know — in stretched out audio, in hyperpop gibberish, in plain voice, and in song — Are U Mad At Me?
He's kidding, of course. Because it's obviously easier to giggle and keep things fun and flirty, lest someone lets life get a little too real.
But somewhere in the fields and the farms and the line dances of rural Iowa, the ghosts of Fields' scared, closeted childhood are still wondering…
Are U Mad At Me, due out May 1st via Don Giovanni Records, marks a huge, cowboy boot-wearing step for the Brooklyn-based songwriter. Fields proves that genre is as fluid as sexuality, as the album saunters across country, pop, disco, grunge, and classical with ease. Across 12 tracks, Fields traverses bangers like power pop lead single "Party Girl" and two-stepping second single "Hands Off The Hat" (co-written with Grammy award-winning songwriter Melody Walker) all the way to tragic ballads like "Apalachicola to Tallahassee" (co-written with Karen Pittelman of Karen & The Sorrows) and the closing "Uncle Charlie's." He makes light of gender-neutral bathrooms marked with unicorns instead of stick figures in the guitar-driven "Pronoun Meltdown" and calls out a husband cheating on his wife with another man in the tragicomic ballad of "You Should Tell Your Wife."
In a powerful twist, though, the end of Side A includes the spoken word track "Arthur Gets A Ring" that leads into "1984." In the historical fiction of this voicemail, a friend calls the late Iowan cellist and avant-garde musician Arthur Russell in the middle of the AIDS crisis to catch up.
"It's easy for people to forget that era, but we completely lost a generation of people and artists," Fields says. "There isn't really this example of people older than us to look up to or to see. It's important to remember that and remember them."
As the monologue fades out, Fields plays one chord before singing the opening line to "1984." The song blooms from the solo piano intro into a swirling, reverb-laden track that feels like being in the middle of a snow globe.
"I was really intentional about wanting that to be more of a dance song," Fields begins. "Especially if you go out to gay clubs, even at that time, you're playing disco, you're playing dance music. I wanted to create that atmosphere through the song. But the dissonant chord is basically when the rug gets pulled out."
Are U Mad At Me arrives at a pivotal time in the roots music scene and the world at large. Fields, who is now rapidly becoming one of New York City's queer country leaders — through his East Village Cxntry Club residency at Lucinda Williams' new honky tonk and dive bar and through his musical mentorship work through The Recording Academy — has been working tirelessly for this moment for more than a decade. Performing under this moniker since 2013, Fields has released three LPs and two EPs. He's recorded on queer country pioneers Lavender Country's 2022 reunion album, Blackberry Rose, and served as the band's touring pianist. Additionally, his 2023 protest song duet with Mya Byrne, "Burn This Statehouse Down," made it onto NPR music critic Ann Powers' list of favorite songs of the year.
Ultimately, Are U Mad At Me encompasses music for dancing, for honoring elders, for flirting, and for ordering the second mimosa at brunch because life is fleeting. As Fields says, "At the end of the day, I just want to make people feel a little bit lighter, like they are healing."
