Crossing Dragon Bridge
Steve Wynn
Release Date: 2008
Additional Images
Album Notes:
US version now available.
The days during my three weeks in Ljubljana were pretty simple. I would wake up early and leave my apartment on Trubarjeva Street and cross Dragon Bridge in search of a good cup of coffee which I would I would sip as I watched the vendors in the open market as they sold cabbage, purses, cheap watches and anything else that might be worth a Euro or two. I'd watch this panorama of commerce and barter and think about which song I would drag into the daily laboratory that was Chris Eckman's home studio.
I had never made a record like this before. I was in Slovenia, far from my New York City apartment and in a musical world that had shrunk down to just two people-me and Chris, the multi-talented producer (Midnight Choir) and bandleader (Walkabouts, Chris & Carla). He had been wanting to make a record with me for many years and seemed particularly intent on stripping things down to my voice and my acoustic guitar and then building up another universe from there.
No band. No session players (until later). No passing of the baton in this relay race. Even Chris would hesitate when I tried to get him to play something. Guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals-if I could do it, I had to do it. And that's why "Crossing Dragon Bridge" sounds different from other records I've done before but also more like the sound inside my head than anything I've done before.
But it's not a record I would have made in New York. Or in Tucson. Or in Los Angeles, Tokyo, Moscow or Mali, It's not like a record I would make on the moon or on Mars or in New Jersey. It has the sound and the mood and the sights and the overall vibe of Ljubljana. I swallowed the city whole and then waited for the meal to work itself into a digestive hallucination before spitting it out again each day at Chris' place. And then it was back for a pint of Union beer by the river before starting all over again.
When I left Slovenia a few weeks later both of us knew we had something special. And then we proceeded to add the extra bits that would take the experience further. An eight-piece orchestra was added in Prague to a bunch of the songs and a woman's choir in Ljubljana was added to others. Linda Pitmon, Kirk Swan, Chris Cacavas and Tim Adams (Teenage Prayers) chimed in from New York, Los Angeles and Germany bringing in elements of familiarity from my past and present.
Finally the whole thing was filtered through the creative and impressionistic mixing skills of Tucker Martine (Decemberists, Laura Veirs) and turned into the record that you hold in your hands. It's a snapshot, a dream, an acid flashback, a tourist guide, a midnight snack, a morning cup of coffee-it's the other world that happened around me and inside my head for three weeks last September. I hope you enjoy taking the trip back there with me.
Track Listing
| Item 1: cd | ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Track Title | Play |
| 1 | Slovenian Rhapsody I | Slovenian Rhapsody I |
| 2 | Manhattan Fault Line | Manhattan Fault Line |
| 3 | Love Me Anyway | Love Me Anyway |
| 4 | She Came | She Came |
| 5 | When We Talk About Forever | When We Talk About Forever |
| 6 | Annie & Me | Annie & Me |
| 7 | Wait Until You Get To Know Me | Wait Until You Get To Know Me |
| 8 | Punching Holes In The Sky | Punching Holes In The Sky |
| 9 | Bring The Magic | Bring The Magic |
| 10 | God Doesn't Like It | God Doesn't Like It |
| 11 | Believe In Yourself | Believe In Yourself |
| 12 | I Don't Deserve This | I Don't Deserve This |
| 13 | Slovenian Rhapsody II | Slovenian Rhapsody II |
Album Press
Hybrid Magazine
"Bring The Magic" is another great Wynn road song in the vein of "Amphetamine": "50,000 watts from the back of my Impala / Wolfman Jack is on the line tonight" This is more of a slow cruise through a Southern night than a full-on blast down the highway; the song works pretty well with a muted arrangement, including some more great strings.moreposted: 2008-09-01Pop Matters
Fans of Wynn’s hard-rocking Miracle 3 material may warm up to these upbeat songs first, but repeated listens brings out the rewards of the slower songs, too. This is late night music, for evenings when even familiar surroundings seem foreign and memories take on greater weight and meaning than the day-to-day.moreposted: 2008-09-08NoDepression.com
Steve Wynn Returns: Former Dream Syndicate frontman/paisley underground enabler Steve Wynn has been on a roll lately, releasing a disc with the Baseball Project (his collaboration with Young Fresh Fellow Scott McCaughey and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, among others) and joining with the Teenaged Prayers in a band called Hazel Motes (named, it's a safe bet, for Flannery O'Connor's Wise Bloodmoreposted: 2008-11-13Phoenix New Times
After three stellar albums known as the “desert trilogy” because they were made in Tucson, singer/songwriter Steve Wynn set off for a change of scenery for his new disc Crossing Dragon Bridge. Recorded in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, the record is a tasteful mix of Americana and Eastern European sounds, woven tightly together by Wynn's always compelling narratives. He'smoreposted: 2008-11-112theadvocate.com
Steve Wynn’s lengthy discography includes recordings by Dream Syndicate, his influential, guitar-centered ’80s band; Gutterball, a raucous ’90s group that featured members of House of Freaks and the Silos; his latest band, Miracle 3; and, with the arrival of Crossing Dragon Bridge, 14 solo albums.Crossing Dragon Bridge, mostly recorded in Slovenia, is characteristically guitar-based, but it also features a Czechmoreposted: 2008-09-19PopMatters
This is late night music, for evenings when even familiar surroundings seem foreign and memories take on greater weight and meaning than the day-to-day. You could drown in your own rhapsody with Crossing Dragon Bridge as background or learn to swim in it as gracefully as Wynn.
moreposted: 2008-09-09Allmusic.com
According to his liner notes, when Steve Wynn went to Ljubljana, Slovenia to make a record with producer Chris Eckman (songwriter, guitarist, and founder of the Walkabouts who also does work for Slovenian television) at the latter's studio, he never expected to be told he had to do everything himself. Wynn had some songs for this collaboration, but others weremoreposted: 2008-09-09Pop Matters
Living for any length of time in a foreign country—particularly one where you don’t speak the language—is a curiously detaching experience. You watch people you don’t know, events you’re not connected with, like a film without a soundtrack, almost a series of abstract images. Moreover, you are thrown back on your own life and memories in a way that simplymoreposted: 2008-09-08Chart Attack
Crossing Dragon Bridge, Steve Wynn's first solo studio album since 2001's Here Come The Miracles, will receive a North American release through Rock Ridge Music on Sept. 9.The album, which came out in Europe earlier this year, was recorded in producer and Walkabouts member Chris Eckman's home studio in Ljubljana, Slovenia during three weeks last September. A Slovenian women's choir,moreposted: 2008-07-14Magnet
Straight outta Ljubljana, baby. When Steve Wynn dropped in on his old pal Chris Eckman (Walkabouts) in Slovenia last year, he probably didn't realize he'd return home to New York City with an ambitious, lush-with-strings solo album in his suitcase. Crossing Dragon Bridge is a striking departure from his work with the Miracle 3 (don't worry, fans, Wynn's bandmoreposted:BLURT
For his latest album, former Dream Syndicate mastermind Steve Wynn not only went outside his comfort zone, he went half a world away, leaving his Miracle 3 bandmates (save drummer Linda Pitmon) back home. Working with producer Chris Eckman in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the basic framework of Crossing Dragon Bridge was built entirely with Wynn shouldering the load, playing acoustic guitarmoreposted:MILWAUKEE SHEPHERD EXPRESS
The title of Crossing Dragon Bridge was inspired by the landmark that Steve Wynn regularly traversed during a recent three-week stay in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where the founder of '80s alternative-rock pioneers The Dream Syndicate recorded his first solo album since 2001.? Most of these 13 songs, initially stripped down to just Wynn and his acoustic guitar, were later enhanced withmoreposted:MOJO, UK
While Wynn's band Dream Syndicate was leading LA's Lou Reed-inspired Paisley Underground, up in Seattle with The Walkabouts his (now) Slovenian-based producer Chris Eckman took the first steps towards grunge. But neither of them got to be big stars so, er...they wound up recording in Ljubljana. With basic vocals and guitar hammered through in three days, then stringmoreposted:UNCUT, UK
For all their merits, Steve Wynn's most recent works have sometimes felt like those of a man privately indulging his garage-punk youth. Ditching his Miracle 3 troupe, this eighth solo LP finds the prolific Californian turning down the volume and embracing his inner folkie. Produced by the Walkabouts Chris Eckman in Slovenia, the songs are mostly stripped tomoreposted:Lucid Culture
The result here blends lot of acoustic guitar and some electric piano with lush, epic string arrangements that take Wynn’s dark, frequently ominous songs to new levels of majestic grandeur.moreposted: 2008-11-26All Music
Lyrically it's the most sophisticated thing he's ever recorded, head and shoulders above the standard fare from his peers and by many new kids on the block as well (no pun intended). He's set himself a new high-water mark to be sure. Ultimately, it's a songwriter's album but one that is full of surprise, delight, and a sense of poetrymoreposted: 2008-04-21Lucid Culture
Crossing Dragon Bridge comes in at #12moreposted: 2008-12-20Lucid Culture
Crossing Dragon Bridge comes in at #1, #17, #43, #58moreposted: 2008-12-23Jerseybeat.com
Why Steve Wynn’s name does not instantly come up in conversation of rock’s great songwriters baffles me. With incredible detail and poetic grace, Wynn weaves tales of love and other personal perils on Crossing Dragon Bridge. “Manhattan Fault Line” is an autobiographical anecdote as well as a tongue in cheek twist on the warnings of LA’s certain earthquake-related demise (“Thismoreposted: 2008-10-01Bullz-Eye.com
Steve Wynn’s never been a slacker. Since founding L.A.’s neo-psychedelic Dream Syndicate in the early ‘80s and subsequently establishing himself as one of the godfathers of the so-called “Paisley Underground,” he’s been consistently prolific throughout the three decades since. A solo career initiated in 1990 has proved especially intriguing, and while Wynn’s occasionally shifted his stance, he’s rarely repeated himselfmoreposted: 2008-09-27Hybrid Magazine
24 years after The Dream Syndicate burst onto the LA Paisley Underground scene, Steve Wynn is still going strong as a great American singer/songwriter. Since 1990 he's been putting out records as a solo artist, and has amassed an unrivalled body of work that draws inspiration from the decades of guitar rock that inspired him and then takes it tomoreposted: 2008-09-04Caught in the Carousel
Somewhere in Slovenia, Steve Wynn drank a cup of coffee.Or, more specifically, somewhere in Ljubljana, Steve Wynn was searching for a cup of coffee while observing the vendors in the open market flash their goods in big bursts of color and commerce. Far away from his adopted home in New York City, Wynn's mission to find good coffee was secondarymoreposted: 2008-08-20Soundsxp
Think of it as a postcard from the more mature sort of tourist, one who's given up the beach for an art gallery.moreposted: 2008-05-05TinyMixTapes.com
Steve Wynn (ex-Dream Syndicate) is on something of an unlikely comeback swing. His last three albums were hailed by critics, and his latest, recorded mostly by himself in Slovenia, was half-a-star shy of the coveted Allmusic Five-Star Guarantee, by which Allmusic guarantees that anybody who doesn’t download it is a total philistine and earns the eternal stony disapproval of Stephenmoreposted: 2008-10-03Leaky Sparrow
To quote directly from Steve Wynn’s self-written liner notes from Crossing Dragon Bridge: “It’s a snapshot, a dream, an acid flashback, a tourist guide, a midnight snack, a morning cup of coffee” and I couldn’t agree more. Bringing all of his considerable talents and 25-year history of record making to bear, this fine musician has really come up with amoreposted: 2008-06-13Gaffa
"naked and vulnerable"moreposted:ostlendingen.no
"melodic, playful, charming".."If you are not charmed, it is you who have a problem".moreposted: 2008-04-29UNTFREDAG.SE
"An excellent result"...."A perfectly encapsulated by Chris Eckman"moreposted: 2008-04-30GD.NO
"A record that grows with time"moreposted: 2008-04-24Hamar Arbeiderblad
"Music for those who likes The Walkabouts, Minor Majority and Leonard Cohen"moreposted:ABC Nyheter (Norway)
"one of Steve's best albums so far",,,"deserves a place on the shelfes at anyone who values good music higher than sale numbers and spotlight"moreposted: 2008-04-29Dagbladet.no
"Cohen like voice"..."Magnificent"..."lovely"moreposted: 2008-04-23Ox-Fanzine / Ausgabe #77
"Wynn here with strings, acoustic guitar and electronic sounds wonderfully melancholy"..."A ver excellent record"..."Manhattan Fault Line is one of the best songs of his entire career"moreposted: 2008-04-22musicheadquarter.de
"Wynn dares to "Dragon Crossing Bridge" to step away from hard rock"..."variety is still one of its strengths"...""moreposted: 2008-04-18Soundslike
"beauty in simplicity".."organ sliding up and down the hills"..."intimacy"..."pleasure"moreposted: 2008-04-22
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