Ox - Press Release, March 2005

Canadian collective Ox release ‘Dust Bowl Ballads’ in the UK on May 23rd via Popfiction Records (cat PF8). It’s the follow up and counterpart to their debut ‘Dust Bowl Revival’, which became the first independent release to reach number one on the college radio chart in their homeland. It also saw them touring and riding a wave of interest in the UK in late 2003/early 2004.

'Dust Bowl Ballads' was recorded alongside ‘Dust Bowl Revival’ at Profile studios in Vancouver. Darker and moodier in spirit, it pays tribute to Woody Guthrie’s 1940 legendary debut album of the same name.

The figurehead of Ox is singer songwriter Mark Browning, who grew up in Sudbury and cites his first musical memory thus: ‘seeing my uncle stoned on the couch listening to the Who’s ’Tommy’ with headphones on. My mother came and shoo'd him off to bed. At that moment I knew what I wanted to do with my life.’

He’s ably assisted by the talents of Ryan Bishops, Josh Turnbull, Rose Murphy, Nathan Lawr (Royal City), Jesse Zubot, Ken Beattie (Radiogram), Trish Klein (Be Good Tanyas), and Chôn (Radiogram).

The album was recorded live and produced by Chôn and Browning. In Browning’s words, it’s ‘a reflection of middle-America, where sun sky and grain converge, where time and highway collide to leave a distinct flavour of dust in your mouth.’

‘Canadian singer-songwriter Mark Browning (Ox) leans heavily on the country-folk-rock tradition part invented by his countryman Neil Young back in the early '70s, and it's to Browning's credit that Dust Bowl Revival lives up to such a heavy analogy. This is thanks in no small part to the musicians with whom he's surrounded himself who seem to instinctively pick up on the appropriate vibe and run with it like a crack '70s West Coast hippie session band - think a more structured If I Could Only Remember My Name and you'll get the idea. Add to the equation the calibre of the songs, which incline toward narrative based lyrics, drawing the listener into spare, dreamy, wrecked little worlds where all existence relies on a barely caught glance and nothing really happens except lives being lived, and the picture nears completion.’– Bucketfull of Brains on Dust Bowl Revival, Dec 03

For more info see www.oxmusic.ws

For more info, contact Rosie Wilby at Piranha PR 020 8299 1928

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