Diana Announces New Album 'Glad Rag Doll' available September 25th!

Diana Krall's extraordinary new album, 'Glad Rag Doll' (9/25, Verve Records) is an exhilarating and adventurous exploration of new sounds, new instrumentation and new musicians. It stars a singer and piano player, filled with mischief, humour and a renewed sense of tenderness and intimacy.

The record reveals itself at that remarkable vanishing point in time where all music; swinging, rocking and taboo, collide with songs of longing, solace and regret. All are made new again in a vaudeville of Krall's own imagining.

It is at once a major departure and a natural progression for the gifted musician. Diana simply calls the album, "a song and dance record".

"We all just went in there as if the songs were written yesterday. I didn't want to make a period piece or nostalgia record," said Krall.

In fact, these are songs that Krall has spent a lifetime contemplating. Both her childhood home and her current address are stacked with 78rpm records and song folios filled with precious and unpolished gems, songs that have not worn out their lustre from repetition.

If any of these songs could be identified as "20's or 30's music", then they are 20's or 30's songs as imagined for the 21st Century.

The same could be said for a startling rendition of the Pomus classic, "Lonely Avenue", first cut in the 1950s.

The contemplative, contemporary reading of the old Gene Austin recording of "Let It Rain" finds a sympathetic echo in Krall's exquisite rendition of Buddy and Julie Miller's more recent ballad of spiritual longing, "Wide River To Cross".

Working for the first time with renowned producer T Bone Burnett and engineer Mike Piersante, Krall revels in a fresh sonic playground captured in the vivid grain and deep resonant focus of analog tape. Burnett has assembled a distinguished cast of remarkable men to complement Krall's piano contribution at an 1890s Steinway upright.

From the hushed to the howling, Marc Ribot's poised and sympathetic solo guitar accompaniment on the title track contrasts beautifully with a range of surprising sounds and colors.

As ever with a Diana Krall record, her distinctive feel and unique sense of time is crucial. She has established a new and exciting rhythmic rapport with drummer Jay Bellerose and bassist Dennis Crouch that has let loose some of her most joyous piano playing heard on record to date.

Among the new elements brought into the spontaneous arrangement process are the mysterious, sometimes comedic commentaries coming from the keyboards of Keefus Green.

The album will be released worldwide on Verve Records September 25th and is available for pre-order here: http://smarturl.it/GladRagDoll

Marc Ribot (Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, 6 String Bass and Banjo),
T Bone Burnett (Guitars),
Howard Coward (Ukulele, Mandola, Tenor Guitar, Harmony Vocals),
Jay Bellerose (Drums),
Dennis Crouch (Bass),
Bryan Sutton (Guitars),
Colin Linden (Guitars, Dobro)
Keefus Green (Keyboards, Mellotron).

LISTEN to "There Ain't No Sweet Man That's Worth the Salt of My Tears" here: http://smarturl.it/NewDianaKrall

Track Listing:

1. We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye (Woods)
2. There Ain't No Sweet Man That's Worth the Salt of My Tears (Fisher)
3. Just Like a Butterfly That's Caught in the Rain (Dixon/Woods)
4. You Know - I Know Ev'rything's Made for Love (Sherman/Tobias/Johnson)
5. Glad Rag Doll (Ager/Dougherty/Yellen)
6. I'm A Little Mixed Up (James/Johnson)
7. Prairie Lullaby (Hill)
8. Here Lies Love (Rainger/Robin)
9. I Used to Love You But It's All Over Now (von Tilzer/Brown)
10. Let it Rain (Kendis/Dyson)
11. Lonely Avenue (Pomus)
12. Wide River to Cross (Miller/Miller)
13. When the Curtain Comes Down (Hoefle/Lewis/Sherman)

Song Premiere: Diana Krall Offers Wistful Take on 'Wide River to Cross'
Singer says working with T Bone Burnett was 'life-changing'
by: Dan Hyman

Diana Krall achieved a career highlight this year when she played piano on and served as the primary musical guide for Paul McCartney's standards album, Kisses on the Bottom. But her latest work, the T Bone Burnett-produced Glad Rag Doll, reinvigorated her like never before, the Grammy-winning jazz pianist tellsRolling Stone.

"It was like I was a completely clean piece of canvas," Krall, 47, says of the sessions that resulted in whimsical, yet equally wistful and weathered takes on timeless tunes including Buddy Miller's "Wide Rivers To Cross," which you can now stream exclusively on RollingStone.com.

On the surface, Glad Rag Doll, due September 25th, seems like a significant shift for Krall, whose most recent release was the 2009 bossa nova-influenced collection Quiet Nights. But as she explains, the album's songs are deeply rooted in her musical history: while other kids were out causing a ruckus, a teenaged Krall was listening to 78-rpm records in her basement, blissing out to American musicians including Gene Austin, Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke. "This music is probably closer to me than anything because I knew it as a child," she says.

Although Krall was certainly familiar with Burnett – her husband, Elvis Costello, had worked with him on a slew of projects ("They're like brothers," she says) – she had never seen the producer in action before Costello persuaded her to enlist Burnett for Glad Rag Doll. She was hesitant at first, given her husband's friendship with him. "I was thinking inside my head, 'Oh gosh, if this doesn't work this is gonna be difficult,'" she says, laughing.

She needn't have worried: Burnett and Krall were a natural fit, bonding over a shared encyclopedic knowledge of music. The singer says she thrived on Burnett's hands-off approach, comparing him to "a great director who knows exactly what to say. It was a life-changing experience to work with him."

Costello stopped by the studio occasionally to join his wife and close friend, along with a collection of studio pros including guitarist Marc Ribot, bassist Dennis Crouch and keyboardist Keefus. It was a different experience from Krall's collaboration with Costello on her 2004 album The Girl in the Other Room. Where they shared writing duties on that project, his participation this time was looser: The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer contributed instrumental parts on some tunes and shared a bevy of in-studio laughs."Elvis's presence there was just so much fun for me,” Krall says. “We just had such a good time."

All the same, Glad Rag Doll was a daunting task, Krall says. It required taking old-school songs and giving them a modern sheen, without having the entire project feel like a "giant nostalgia piece." But what Krall says made the project work was relinquishing control: She, Burnett and the others worked as a unit, composing largely off-the-cuff. "It was completely surrendering to the moment," she says.

To a younger generation, the songs on the album may largely sound foreign, and Krall says she understands the risks of recording songs that are a bit obscure. But armed with her signature contralto, the singer brings considerable charm to standouts including the ramshackle shimmy of Fred Fisher's "There Ain't No Sweet Man Worth the Salt of My Tears," the steady pacing on Gene Austin's "Let It Rain" and the haunting vindication that echoes in her take on the Doc Pomus classic "Lonely Avenue." Risks or not, it was a project Krall just couldn't pass up.

"I've always been interested in artists that have a lot to say," she says, "and have the courage to explore different ways of saying it."

BUMP: Added track listing for Deluxe Version.

itunes has an 18th track, "All I Do Is Dream Of You".

It looks to me like the Best Buy deluxe version is the same as the Amazon, with the same 4 extra tracks.
The only exclusive appears to be the I tunes track that Patrick mentioned.

I reviewed the album for American Songwriter for anyone wanting to check that out.
http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/ ... -rag-doll/

I bought the deluxe edition at Best Buy and it's in a standard CD jewel case.

I bought the deluxe edition at Best Buy and it's in a standard CD jewel case.

And the cover art is essentially identical, so be sure you're picking up the version that you're looking for.