Meet ‘The Mayor of Estes Park’
Gilbert Neal is sardonic, humane, obsessed. He is the kind of artist we sometimes call the empathetic misanthrope — one who loves the world so fiercely he almost seems to hate it.
And that is entertaining and inspiring.
We met Gilbert in 2013, right after he released his fourth independent album, Dirty Red Pagan. Instead of “migrating” the CD to the, er, circular filing system, we kept it. And we put it in the player now and then, just because.
Fast forward a couple years. Gilbert is hard at work on a new record. And he wonders if we care.
Yes, we do. This stuff, we think as it buzzes across the wires, is amazing.
Like the elected leader of a small but vital municipality, the album is called The Mayor of Estes Park. It’s about love and loss and a whimsical alienation that never relents. And you can dance to it, fergawdsakes.
So do.
Buy at Amazon | CD Baby | iTunes | Bandcamp (release day sale: $8)
About Mark DoyonI run Wampus, a creative development agency and label for emerging artists and authors. I make records as Arms of Kismet (and sometimes Waterslide), and wrote the book 'Bonneville Stories.'
I’m awesome!!!
Not too shabby at all. Now go make another record this good.