The Lumineers' Wesley Schultz Shares His 'Vignettes' This Week

[Cover photo credits to Danny Clinch]

The Lumineers' Wesley Schultz had previously announced the upcoming release of his debut solo album, Vignettes, and this week will see its arrival on October 30th from Dualtone and Decca.

The co-founder of The Lumineers uses this album to explore his many influences and early inspirations via a series of cover versions spanning such legendary artists as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Sheryl Crow, Jim Croce, Derek and the Dominos, and Warren Zevon.

Schultz explains:

“The way I envisioned this album was as if you had all these songs represented by little houses on a street, and then a tornado ripped through the town and tore them all the way down to the studs and foundation… that’s what you’d have with every one of these songs after I re-imagined them. I was also trying to create something that doesn’t ask anything from the listener — it’s simply a companion, a friend in both good times and bad. Like how I listen to James Taylor’s greatest hits, often, and it just seems to soothe me.”

Produced by longtime collaborator Simone Felice (whose work includes The Lumineers’ Cleopatra and III) and Produced, mixed and engineered by David Baron at Sun Mountain Studios in Boiceville, NY over five sessions last month.

The album features Schultz on guitar and vocals, backed by Baron on piano and special guests including Cindy Mizelle (Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band), The Felice Brothers’ James Felice on accordion and harmony vocals, the UK-based vocal duo, The Webb Sisters (Tom Petty, Leonard Cohen), and singer-songwriter Diana DeMuth, the latter featured on a duet rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather.”

Schultz gives further in-depth background on his song choices:

“This album is pulling from a lot of different threads of my past. ‘My City in Ruins,’ ‘Boots of Spanish Leather,’ ‘The Ballad of Lou the Welterweight,’ those are all songs I was covering in bars, way back when I was living in Brooklyn in 2008. That was within days of when I’d written ‘Ho Hey’ and ‘Life In The City’ and ‘Flowers In Your Hair,’ all in this same little apartment. It was a rich time for me creatively and these covers were sort of informing my songwriting, just studying all these different artists.

I was introduced to a lot of music through other artists, listening to their covers and then going backward. So part of this record is the joy of exposing something that you know is beautiful, while trying to make it your own so that they both can stand on their own two feet. It’s almost like you’re showing people your personal playlist, your inspiration.

You try to make your own medicine sometimes. I think music is medicine. For me, the intention in making Vignettes was so simple – what would I listen to right now, in these times? And this music is what I felt like I needed.”