WELCOME TO STRUGGLEVILLE (Remaster by Pete Lyman) 2024

by Bill Mallonee

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Bon Joelvvie Great to hear this masterpiece remastered! I’ll never forget hearing “Struggleville” for the first time at Cornerstone way back in the day…and the songs still blow me away…

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of WELCOME TO STRUGGLEVILLE (Remaster by Pete Lyman) 2024, Comes To Life (New single & free download), GLIMMER Spring 2024 (demos are back up for 2 days), NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, & WEST, ABOVE, BELOW & WITHIN (single from Orphan Songs), HERE IT OPENS WITH A PRAYER, BUT IT CLOSES WITH A SONG (2022), A CLAMORING OF GHOSTS (2021), THE LOT OF EVERYMAN (a free download today), STUNNED (an anniversary song), and 85 more. , and , .
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1.	Welcome to Struggleville 04:19	buy track
2.	Aftermath 02:26	buy track
3.	Résumé 03:36	buy track
4.	Babylon 03:57	buy track
5.	All Messed Up (Nowhere To Go) 04:12	buy track
6.	Vet 04:25	buy track
7.	I Can Explain Everything 03:46	buy track
8.	Runaway Train 03:02	buy track
9.	Sympathy 05:26	buy track
10.	Cold Ground 03:40	buy track
11.	Last To Know 03:19	buy track
12.	Bitter Price To Pay 02:26	buy track
13.	Glory & The Dream 03:48	buy track

about

Magic Time, Magic Songs. Magic Band by bill mallonee
"Welcome to Struggleville"
What you have here, in digital form, is the lovingly remastered version of Welcome to Struggleville taken from the 1/2 inch source tape for the album's sequence. Grammy award winner Pete Lyman brought his talents gifts and times to the table in a wonderful way here.

Bands, the ones I like anyway, grow, evolve & change...
I don't think any of us necessarily felt there would be "the big time,"
but it did feel like something was closing in; I do remember feeling that this configuration of songs, musicians and our place on the Space Time continuum was very special and that the power & energy that I'd been trying to arrange for over the past 3 of my incarnations of VoL had taken a sudden sharp turn, a particular focused and was becoming infused with a particular kind of energy that only Newt Carter, David LaBruyere and Travis McNabb could bring. Saying that those musicians brought VoL to another realm musically would be a huge understatement. They, in fact, took it to the moon and back....night after night.

The personnel was beyond incredible.

We had been signed to Phil Walden's Capricorn label post SXSW in Austin in Summer of 1993; In Fall of 1993 the band walked into Cyclops studio in Atlanta (Courtney Love had apparently just been there to record her first smash hit album "Live Through This.") to lay down the basic tracks for Welcome To Struggleville;

We were able to grab 14 of the 20 song set list that week; Bassist David LaBruyere & drummer Travis McNabb were nothing short of phenomenal, nailing track after track. The large room at Cyclops afforded us a big, full and "live" drum & bass sound.
Keyboardist, Joey Huffman brought his solid rock Hammond B-3 to the mixes, as well. He is a major talent and was Indispensable in the making of this recording.

Newt Carter & I later added guitars & vocals at Full Moon Studios in Watkinsville, Ga.
Mixing was done by producer Jim Scott at Bobby Brown's studio in ATL;

And from there? Pretty much the rest is history.

The album, with it's title cut single, was released to a flurry of great reviews, wonderful label energy. It immediately entered the top ten playlist at Atlanta's 99x, a modern rock station that was gaining huge momentum.

The fledgling Adult Alternative Album radio format was also breaking wide-open nationally and embraced the album, as well. Cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston, Dallas, Austin, St. Louis, Denver, Boulder, Los Angeles, and a host of college towns meant that we would have plenty of work for the next year on the road in our tricked out van affectionately named the "Huggy Bear."

Welcome to Struggleville was the album that broke us nationally.
Big sound. Big themes. Big statements; all delivered with machine gun lyrics & a stump preacher candor.
I was learning how to become a more engaging performer and put together seamless sets where Hi-octane energy was the name of the game. It was heady times.

The songs? Yes, I think they were really good songs from start to finish;
The band delivered.

And I still believe in those songs, every one of them.

But, it was the band, "live" and in the studio in all of it's blazing glory that "sold" the record night after night.

I was humbled & honored to have the GREAT playing by Newt Carter, David LaBruyere and Travis McNabb-hands down one of the finest versions of VoL bands that ever existed. Incomparable. Being wildly different in personalities, I know we struggled to be the best we could be for each other on the road; I can truthfully say that there were never any dictates about how a particular song should be rendered; So what manifested among the 4 of us over two years was birthed from digging deep into the soul of the South and the sound & feel of New Orleans. It was a fractured Beauty with Evangeline transparency that made Vigilantes of Love what it was.

That's what you find here on this superb recording, an album Paste Music Magazine called "one of the best rock albums & bands of the 90's." I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I did and still do....
~ bill mallonee Spring 2024

Bill Mallonee: Acoustic guitars, vocals, harmonica
Newton Carter: Electric guitars & vocals
David LaBruyere: Bass, fretless bass & vocals
Travis McNabb: drums, percussion & vocals
Joey Huffman: Hammond B-3, piano

WTS was produced by Jim Scott
Remaster by Pete Lyman at Infrasonic Studios, Nashville, Tn.

credits

released March 22, 2024

All songs by Bill Mallonee c. CyBrenJoJosh Music BMI 1994
Bill Mallonee: Acoustic guitars, vocals, harmonica
Newton Carter: Electric guitars & vocals
David LaBruyere: Bass, fretless bass & vocals
Travis McNabb: drums, percussion & vocals
Joey Huffman: Hammond B-3, piano

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about

Bill Mallonee

Bill Mallonee is an Americana artist w/ 80 plus albums over a 30 year career. Voted by Paste Music Magazine #65 in their "Top 100 Living Songwriters" poll. He was the
founding member of Vigilantes of Love. He has worked with Mark Heard, Buddy Miller, Emmylou Harris, & Peter Buck from REM.
His most recent work, "Lead On, Kindly Light" is a 23song double Cd released Feb 2020. ... more

billmalloneemusic.com

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