Kevin Bronson on April 7th, 2018

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“I can’t keep my eyes from rolling,” Maria Taylor sings on her new single, as concise a commentary on current events as you’re liable to hear these days.

The song is the lush, leisurely jam “Real Life (Trump Era),” in which the 41-year-old singer-songwriter plaintively holds forth on “American society right now: everything from narcissistic Instagram social-warriors to President Trump keeping us in a state of purgatory en route to hell.” It’s told from her POV as a mother, artist and unapologetic dreamer, and it features contributions from two musicians and longtime friends from her hometown of Birmingham, Ala.: Les Nuby (Verbena) and Louis Schefano (Remy Zero). Taylor says she sent Nuby an acoustic guitar demo of the track, “and he … managed to turn it into a super-sweet sounding shoegazey slow jam. After that, I accidentally left Louis alone with the song and when I returned he had sung all over it (as he usually does — ha). As it turns out, whenever he does this, it always makes it way better.”

The song, Taylor’s first single since her stellar 2016 album “In the Next Life,” also introduces the compilation “Friends and Family, Volume 1” from her fledgling label Flower Moon Records. The 16-song album features a rather astonishing collection of talent with connections to various stops and projects in Taylor’s career, including many in the Saddle Creek Records extended family who’ve matriculated to Los Angeles. (See the track listing below.)

The compilation is out May 11.

||| Stream: “Real Life (Trump Era)”

||| Previously: “Free Song”

“Friends and Family, Volume 1”
1. Louis Schefano – The Future is Now
2. Whispertown – Never Felt Young
3. Dead Fingers – Whistling Song
4. Doctor Samurai and the Firekeepers – The Listeners
5. ghosts – Cant Commit
6. Nik Freitas – Socialize with Me
7. High Up – Night Moves
8. Orenda Fink – I Love You Hi
9. Maria Taylor – Real Life (Trump Era) [ft Lester Nuby and Louis Schefano]
10. Umm – Out
11. Jake Bellows – Tattoo
12. Taylor Hollingsworth – Cant Get the Feeling
13. Viva Violet – Pale Explosions
14. Ryan Dwyer – Holograms (ft Maria Taylor and Louis Schefano)
15. Brad Armstrong – Deer Ticks
16. Mike Bloom – Gaslight