Ghost Repeater

Jeffrey Foucault | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 23, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Signature Sounds Recordingss
• ASIN: B000EXZI64
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,469 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Holed up in Iowa City for the coldest week of the year, Jeffrey Foucault teamed with legendary blues guitar player and producer Bo Ramsey (Greg Brown, Lucinda Williams) to create Ghost Repeater, a country and blues album at the crossroads between love and lament, exploring the hopefulness of new love and the seasickness of contemporary American living.

Ghost Repeaters are empty radio stations scattered around the country to re-broadcast demographically tailored playlists, endless echoes of American market culture, from thousands of miles away. Epidemic sameness, big-box stores, and the retail news cycle of ghost prisoners and God on Our Side create the context in which the songs on Ghost Repeater unfold a story of love and uncertainty.

Written over the course of a year in which Foucault married, Ghost Repeater juxtaposes a personal narrative of hope and joyfulness against the wider story of the times, in a series of travelogues and dreamscapes. Words like bloom and fade, truth and mercy, dream and memory recur through the album to create a sort of grammar, a palette of colors that Foucault and Ramsey merge with dark washes of electric guitar and vocals hushed or plaintive, in a visionary portrait of modern Americana.

It’s a natural pairing – Ramsey’s cool economy of phrase the perfect compliment to Foucault’s elegant lines and weatherbeaten drawl – and the recording itself something of a homecoming, with Foucault traveling back to the Midwest from Massachusetts where he’s lived the past few years, and bringing the songs he’d written home to record them with Ramsey’s longtime collaborators.

In addition to Bo Ramsey’s inimitable sound Foucault has the backing of Rick Cicalo and Steve Hayes (Greg Brown) on rhythm, along with special guest appearances by Iowa legend Dave Moore on harp and accordion, Eric Heywood (Son Volt, Richard Buckner) on pedal steel, and Kris Delmhorst on backing vocals.

Against the broadcast echoes of an America long gone, Foucault lays out the particulars of love in a country contending with its own ghost. In songs of love and empire, dream and memory, Ghost Repeater delivers the honesty of country, the rawboned desperation of blues, and the simplicity of folk to achieve a document that’s timeless and poignant.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth repeating, July 21, 2006

By 

Anne La Mont "annlamont" (MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost Repeater (Audio CD)

Jeffrey Foucault is new to me. His sound on this disc catches at my heart and ear from start to finish. With a mix of folk, blues and country music, these songs have a brooding theme of travel but the bigger theme is one this indepentant music listener resonates with. I learned that Ghost Repeaters are empty radio stations that play demographically profiled playlists to wide sections of America. Echoes of American market culture from thousands of miles away are invading our airways the way epidemic sameness, bigbox stores, and faux news cycles through every state. The songs on Ghost Repeater reveal a story of love and uncertainty. Foucault's words reflect the poles of "one part love and one part grief" (#6) capturing his recent marriage and his delight in that to the heartache he feels looking at our country. Treat yourself well and listen to these songs

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and beautiful, October 1, 2006

By 

J. T. De Vries (Nijmegen, Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghost Repeater (Audio CD)

Saw Jeffrey yesterday over here in Holland in a very intimate concert. For sure not more than 100 people.

I was there to see Slaid Cleaves who would also perform. Jeffrey was the opener of the evening. During his performance I really wondered how it is possible that one man and only a guitar can keep an audience, at least me, listen in astonishment.

A pity he only performed for a bit over half an hour. Afterwards I purchased the Ghost Repeater cd which he signed for me.

I gave it a five star rating. I played the cd today I don't know how many times and it really grows on you and gets better every time you listen to it.

My favourites :

Ghost repeater
Americans in corduroys
I Dream an old lover
One for sorrow
Train to Jackson
One part love
Wild waste and welter
City flower
Tall grass in old virginny
Mesa, Arizona
Appeline

Yes I know I just listed all the songs. That's because I can't choose. Listen for yourself.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Musician -- DO NOT MISS!, October 17, 2006

By 

Whitney Ware (Independence, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghost Repeater (Audio CD)

I don't usually care to share my opinions, but I have to break my normal silence and rave about this musician. I'll agree with a previous reviewer that the album "Ghost Repeater" is a little more polished than his earlier two albums, and that it makes for a slightly weaker finished product. But this young musician is absolutely astonishing. His lyrics are beautiful and thought provoking, and his haunting music gets you in the ears and in the gut. I don't know what genre you'd consider his work -- Folk? Blues? Bluegrass? Americana? Country? Forget genres -- this album, and all of Jeffrey Foucault's previous works, are must-haves for anyone who enjoys truly American music.